CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 50/ 



5496. Acadian Sharp-tailed Finch. 



Animodramus nelsoni stihvirgatus (Dwight) Norton. 1897. 



Fairly common about the salt marshes at the mouths of the 

 streams emptying into Minas basin, King's county, N.S.,from June to 

 October. {H. F. Tufts.) Breeds not uncommonly on the Magdalen 

 islands, N.S. near the seashore. I observed it at Grosse Isle. (Rev. C. J. 

 Young.) Several specimens taken in the vicinity of Hampton, N.B, 

 (Chamberlain.) A nest of this species was taken near Baddeck, Cape 

 Breton island, July 26th, 1898; this species was not rare alongthe shore 

 of the bay east of Baddeck. (Macoun.) A few birds in the salt 

 marsh at Tignish, Prince Edward island were the only ones I could 

 discover, although I searched in many other localities. (Dwight.) 

 Taken at St. Denis de Kamouraska, south shore of St. Lawrence, 

 eastern Quebec; breeding in some numbers. (Dionne.) A casual 

 visitor at Ottawa, Ont. One shot in 1882, identified by Dr. Coues. 

 (Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. V.) 



This form is peculiar to the fresh and salt water marshes of the 

 Maritime Provinces of Canada, especially those bordering on the 

 Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Strangely enough 

 it has never been taken in Nova Scotia, although it undoubtedly 

 occurs there, for I have observed it within two or three miles of 

 the boundary line when rambling over the meadows of the Petit- 

 codiac river in New Brunswick, not far from the type locality. 

 Since my discovery of the birds about ten years ago I have found 

 them breeding at Tignish, Prince Edward island, where they were 

 recorded as caudacutus long before suhvirgatus was separated by 

 Brewster, at Bathurst, N.B., and at Riviere du Loup, Que., on 

 the^south shore of the St. Lawrence. They have also been found 

 a few miles west of the last named place at Kamouraska by Dionne. 

 West^of this I have not found them, neither at LTslet nor on the 

 marshes between the city of Quebec and Ste. Anne de Beaupre. 

 Consequently there appears to be a wide gap between the head- 

 quarters of Jthis form and those of nelsoni, — over one thousand miles. 

 (Dwight in The Auk, Vol. XIII., p. 276.) 



Breeding Notes. — This species is tolerably common on low 

 islands in the St. John river, in York county, N.B. The spring 

 migrants arrive in April, the first observed in 1903 was April 22nd, a 



