ACADIAN SHARP-TAILED SPARROW 789 



AMMOSPIZA CAUDACUTA SUBVIRGATA (Dwight) 

 Acadian Sharp-tailed Sparrow 

 Contributed by Norman P. Hill 



Habits 



The Acadian sharp-tailed sparrow (Ammospiza caudacuta subvir- 

 gata) is the name appHed by Jonathan Dwight in 1887 to the pale 

 grayish race of the sharp-tailed sparrow breeding in the maritime prov- 

 inces of Canada, the type locality being Hillsborough, Albert County, 

 New Brunswick. It breeds from Phippsburg, Maine, northeast 

 along the coastline of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward 

 Island and the Gaspe Peninsula and west along the south bank of the 

 St. Lawrence to Kamouraska. There is one questionable report from 

 the Magdalen Islands, but none from Anticosti Island, Newfoundland, 

 or Labrador. 



Spring. — The Acadian sharp-tailed sparrow is one of the latest of 

 spring migrants. The last birds have left South Carolina by May 29 

 (Sprunt and Chamberlain, 1949). A. D. Cruickshank (1942) reported 

 stragglers as early as April 25 in New York but the main flight is the 

 end of May to June 9. In IMassachusetts, Griscom and Snyder (1955) 

 report that the earliest date is May 15 and the latest June 15, the 

 bulk of the birds passing through about June 1. No reliable data on 

 dates of arrival on the breeding grounds are available; the statement 

 of J. Macoun (1900) that they arrive in April must be rejected. 



Territory. — The breeding habitat of the Acadian sharp-tail shows 

 more variation than that of any other race of the species. In Maine 

 it is found where the glacial moraine landscape gives way to rocky 

 promontories. A. H. Norton (1897) describes it thus: "North of 

 Scarboro', beginning with Cape Elizabeth * * * the coast presents an 

 uneven or hilly face of rocks, indented with coves and bays, studded 

 with dry ledgey islands. Between the hills are innumerable arms of 

 the sea often extending as 'tide rivers' or fjords several miles inland, 

 bordered by narrow swales rather than broad expanses of marsh. 

 Coincident with those features is the low spruce woods, so conspicuous 

 a feature of the Maine coast, so characteristic of the scanty soiled 

 granite ridges, and the fog drenched coast of the north-east." 



So small are these marshes that from their centers hermit thrushes 

 and oUve-sided flycatchers may be heard singing on the neighboring 

 spruce-covered ridges. These marshes are well drained and subject 

 to daily tidal flooding only to the gi-ass roots. They are occupied by 

 the same plants as farther south, Spartina alterniflora on the wetter 

 edges, and Spartina patens, Juncns gerardi, and Triglochin mantima. 



On Grand Manan Island, O. S. Pettingill (1936) found the sharp- 

 tails in an "ill smelling marsh at Castaha that is gouged ui typical 



