792 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 pabt 2 



olive gray with black shafts. Remiges black, primaries edged with 

 gray, tertials with rich buff as are coverts. Throughout upperparts, 

 buff coloration distinctly tinged with olive. Lores and eye-ring buff, 

 like superciliary. Auriculars brown, partially margined Avith black 

 post-ocular stripe. Sub- and post-auriculars rich buff. Underparts 

 rich orangish buff (lightest on belly). Sides of chest with few obscure 

 black streaks. Underparts otherwise immaculate." 



The identification and field marks of this subspecies are discussed in 

 the Hfe history of A. c. caudacula. 



Food. — As in A. c. caudacuta, the summer diet contains a high pro- 

 portion of insect food, which decreases somewhat in winter. O. W. 

 Knight (1908) describes the contents of five stomachs of suhvirgata as 

 "Nemertean worms, beetles, * * * unidentifiable flies, * * * beetle 

 larvae and sand with a little vegetable matter which was seemingly 

 extraneous." H. F. Lewis (1920) tells of the birds visiting an upland 

 hayfield near their marsh to feed. 



Behavior. — In general, this subspecies behaves similarly to A. c. 

 caudacuta. J. Dwight (1896) says: "They may fly considerable 

 distances when disturbed, but they are more Hkely to dive into the 

 grass and defy all efforts to again flush them." J. Macoun (1900) 

 mentions that "They feed about the margins of pools of still water 

 where they seem to procure aquatic insects and grass seeds." 



Where its range borders the Bay of Fundy, this subspecies must 

 adapt to a very large tidal rise and fall. In July 1965 I watched two 

 broods in the marshes below Truro, Nova Scotia, each brood being fed 

 by a single parent. The young were able to fly short distances, but 

 they stayed in the grass on the upper levels where the marsh showed 

 no evidence of recent flooding, while the parents foraged on mud 

 banks along the channels 15 or more feet below the marsh. The 

 rising tide steadily narrowed the foraging area, but the birds did not 

 forage in the grass until the mud was submerged. Each parent re- 

 turned with food about every 45 seconds and fed whichever immature 

 was most vociferous. I could not determine the nature of the food. 



Observing the bird on migration at Revere, Mass., WUliam Brewster 

 (MS.) writes: 



"All were seen in tall sedge on the edge of the water, none on the open 

 marsh or about the salt pools where caudacutus breeds * * *. Flight 

 slightly imdulating and beehke, the wings beating rapidly like a 

 bumble bee. 



"We usually started the birds — sometimes singly, frequently in twos, 

 occasionally three or four together — from the matted sedge. * * * 

 They would at first fly only a few rods along the bank and then 

 almost invariably pitch down into the creek and alight on the mud 

 under the overhanging bank. * * * Frequently, they would dip 



