A c c en t o r c o l l a r is (Scopoli*).
T H E A L P IN E ACCENTOR.
Accentor (dpi,mis t.
Accentor, Bechstein J .—Bill strong, broad at the base ; the upper mandible
overlapping the lower and slightly notched near the tip. Nostrils basal, oblique
and linear. Wings moderate, more or less rounded ; the first feather very short,
the third generally the longest. Legs strong ; the tarsi feathered at the upper
end, and covered in front with several broad scales ; the outer toe joined at its
base to the middle toe ; the claw of the hind toe much the longest.
By the kindness of the late Dr. Thackeray, I am enabled
to give a figure of the Alpine Accentor from the female specimen
killed in what was then the garden of King’s College,
Cambridge, on the 22nd of November, 1822, and recorded
in the ‘ Zoological Jo u rn al’ for 1824 (i. p. 134). At that
time two of these birds had been occasionally seen climbing
about the buildings or feeding on the grass-plots, and were
so tame that one of them was supposed to have fallen a
victim to a cat : the other was shot as stated, and the specimen
is preserved at Eton. The species, however, had been
* Sturnus collaris, Scopoli, Annus I. Historico-Naturalis, p. 131 (1769).
+ Motacilla alpina, J. F. Grmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 957 (1788).
t Ornithologisches Taschenbuch, i. p. 191 (1802).
previously observed in England, though the fact was not
recorded until April, 1832 (Mag. Nat. Hist. v. p. 288), for,
so long ago as August, 1817, as Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun.,
informed the Editor, an example, still in the possession of
Mr. Pamplin, was shot by him in the garden of Forest
House, near Walthamstow in Essex. About March, 1824,
Mr. Richard Lubbock attentively observed a third at Oulton,
near Lowestoft in Suffolk, as he mentions in his ‘ Fauna of
Norfolk.’ I am indebted to the late Dean Goodenougli for
the knowledge of the occurrence of another example, which
was shot in his garden at Wells, in Somersetshire, in 1833.
On January 9tli, 1844, a bird was shot by Mr. Jordan, on
the rocks near Teignmouth, which, though originally taken
for a Richard’s Pipit, is stated by Mr. W. S. Hore (Zool.
p. 566) to have been an Alpine Accentor, and the same
gentleman subsequently recorded (Zool. p. 879) a specimen
obtained soon after near Torbay, which the Editor believes
to have been killed at Berry Head, and shewn to him by its
owner, Mr. F. M. Lyte, in December, 1850. Mr. Porter states
(Zool. p. 5958) that on December 26tli, 1857, two were shot
on the Downs near Lewes, and on January 10th, 1859, Mr.
Gatcombe obtained a pair of this species, which he had seen
about three weeks before, on the rocks of Plymouth citadel.
In addition to the record he made at the time (Zool. p. 6377)
he has been so good as to inform the Editor that their
“ actions, when hopping about on the cliffs, resembled those
of the Hedge-Sparrow, and the reddish mark on their sides
appeared nearly as conspicuous as that of the Redwing. They
were very tame, but when frightened took refuge in a sort
of cave, uttering notes which resembled the words tree, tree,
tree,—similar to those made by many small birds when fighting.”
Another specimen was, according to Colonel Newman,
writing in February, 1860 (Zool. p. 6889), shot some time
previously near Cheltenham; and Mr. W. W. Boulton mentions
(Zool. p. 8766) his having seen one, in 1863, which had
been shot near Scarborough ; while the Editor has been informed
by Mr. Howard Saunders (who is perfectly well acquainted
with the Alpine Accentor) that on August 20th, 1870,
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