794 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part 2 



sight records are unacceptable because of possible confusion with 

 altera. However, W. E. C. Todd (Griscom and Snyder, 1955) 

 identified a specimen from Wayland, Mass., as subvirgata and I 

 consider that several others in the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 from Wayland and from Sing Sing, N.Y., are submrgata, as well as the 

 specimen from Longmeadow, Mass., taken Oct. 6, 1908 (12157 in the 

 Springfield Museum), reported by R. O. Morris (1909) and Bagg and 

 Eliot (1937). I also examined the Clarendon, Vt., specimen taken 

 Oct. 8, 1917 (12403 in the Boston Museum of Science) originally 

 reported as nelsoni (G. L. Kirk, 1917) and then as subvirgata (Bagg 

 and Eliot, 1937); I consider it a typical altera. Farther west, speci- 

 mens taken at Ithaca, N.Y., have been rechecked for me by K. C. 

 Parkes who considers them altera. It may be suspected that all the 

 far inland records of this race will turn out similarly. 



Winter. — This race winters along the coasts of South Carolina, 

 Georgia, and northern Florida, with individuals of all the other races. 

 Over a century ago Audubon (1841) noted their grayer appearance, 

 and remarked that some sharp-tails "were so pale as almost to tempt 

 one to pronounce them a different species." I have found no reports 

 of this race on the Gulf Coast. A few scattered birds attempt to 

 winter along the coast as far north as Massachusetts. 



Distribution 



Range. — Southern Quebec and Maritime Provinces south to 

 northern Florida. 



Breeding range. — The Acadian sharp-tailed sparrow breeds locally 

 in brackish and salt marshes of southern Quebec (southern side of the 

 lower St. Lawrence Valley, Kamouraska, Riviere du Loup), New 

 Brunswick (Petitcodiac River, Hampton), Prince Edward Island 

 (Tignish), Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island, Barrington), and eastern 

 Maine (southwest to Popham Beach). 



Winter range. — Winters in coastal marshes from South Carolina 

 (Charleston County) southward to northern Florida; casually north to 

 New York (Long Island); in migration along the Atlantic seaboard. 



Egg dates. — Nova Scotia: 27 records, June 8 to July 4; 16 records, 

 June 19 to June 25. 



