ACADIAN SHARP-TAILED SPARROW 793 



beneath the bank at once and perform their flight close over the mud 

 or water. * * * [When pressed] they would either double back past 

 us or fly out into the mai"sh and drop into the short grass. 



"After the first flight * * * the bird would run only a few yards 

 and * * * show himself on the mud or eel grass near the middle of the 

 creek, hoppmg slowly about and feeding, every now and then standing 

 erect and still to look about him, or, climbing the steep bank, would 

 raise his head and breast among the grass and remain for several 

 minutes perfectly motionless, evidently aware that his buffy head and 

 and cheeks matched the color of the bleached sedges sufficiently closely 

 to make him fairly secure from detection." 



Voice. — The song of the Acadian sharp-tail is of the same pattern 

 as that of A. c. caudacvta, a short hiss preceded or followed by one or 

 more sharper notes. They seem to sing more frequently than the 

 more southern birds; C. W. Townsend (1905) heard one sing "fifteen 

 times in a minute by the watch." The flight song is more elaborate; 

 as O. S. PettingiU (1936) says: "Each began his flight performance 

 by rushing several feet skyward, giving, during the descent, a sugges- 

 tion of a song, though it resembled more the sizzling sound made when 

 a cap is slowly removed from a bottle of ginger ale." A. H. Norton 

 said they may rise as high as thirty feet. Of the perching song, 

 Jonathan Dwight (1887) writes: "Even their song is inaudible at the 

 distance of a few yards, and at its best is suggestive of the bird's being 

 choked in the attempt. * * * It is usually delivered from the top 

 of a weed, where, as the bird sits crouching, he presents an absurd 

 appearance of ill-concealed fright." W. Montagna (1940) reports 

 that they sing mostly in the morning, the frequency was decreasing 

 by noon and stopping altogether by mid-afternoon. There is occa- 

 sional singing in the evening. He heard the song regularly to July 25 

 and more rarely to August 14. 



Fall. — R. S. Palmer (1949) mentions that there is some premigra- 

 tion wandering in the fall. This race moves south a Uttle later than 

 A. c. caudacnta, the maximum counts in Massachusetts being in the 

 first ten days of October, stragglers remaining into November. In 

 New York, the peak is in the last week of October and stragglers are 

 present into December. 



The main migration route of this subspecies is along the coast, but 

 it chngs to the coast of the mainland. It is less common on outer 

 Cape Cod (Hill, 1965), Nantucket (Griscom and Folgcr, 1948), and 

 Martha's Vineyard (Griscom and Emerson, 1959) than in Essex 

 County, inner Cape Cod, or Dartmouth, Mass. 



Though the great bulk of migrants of this race move along the 

 coast, some go overland across New England, presumably those 

 occupying the more western colonies along the St. Lawrence. Inland 



