798 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 2 



decipiens). The third region is the upper edge of the marsh where it joins the 

 uplands, a region visited only by the unusual spring and autumn tides. Here 

 grows the "blackgrass," in reality a rush {Juncus gerardi) which gives the edges a 

 distinctly dark color, almost black when the rush is in fruit. * * * In the channels 

 of the creeks grows the eel-grass {Zostera marina) commonly mistaken for a 

 seaweed but in reality a flowering plant. 



In addition to the living grass which tends to lean over and form 

 mats, low windrows of dried and matted thatch torn off by the winter 

 storms are deposited in the upper and middle regions by the tides, 

 mixed with driftwood, seaweed, and all kinds of flotsam and jetsam 

 cast up by the sea. These mats and windrows form an important 

 shelter and hiding place for the sharp-tailed sparrows. 



On the Long Island marshes, which are the center of abundance of 

 this subspecies, and in New Jersey, the sharp-tails are found in the 

 drier spots in Spartina patens, whereas the seaside sparrows are con- 

 fined to the coarser, taller, and sparser Spartina altemiflora in the 

 wetter areas. I have found the same to be true in Barnstable, Mass., 

 where both birds occur, but elsewhere in Massachusetts where the 

 seaside is absent or at least very rare, the sharp-tails tend to move 

 into the taller grasses. They do not, however, go into the very tall 

 coarse sedge during the breeding season, though numbers of migrants 

 are found there in the spring and particularly in the fall. G. E. 

 Woolfenden (1956) noted that sharp-tailed sparrows seem to be less 

 restricted in type of feeding habitat than seasides in that they feed 

 in the thick grass, along the perimeter of the marsh and on the banks 

 of pools and creeks. 



The eastern sharp-tail's range is coastal and essentially linear, 

 seldom more than a mile wide and often interrupted by unsuitable 

 shoreline. The exceptions to this occur where suitable marshes may 

 be found inland along estuaries. Probably the best known of these 

 are the Piermont marshes in New York, 30 miles up the Hudson 

 River from the Narrows, which formerly supported a colony of sharp- 

 tailed sparrows that was apparently extirpated by pollution about 

 1930. The birds have also followed Narragansett Bay inland and 

 nest there 15 or 20 miles from the sea. These inland marshes, and 

 indeed some marshes around shore ponds, contain practically fresh 

 water, but their vegetation is always that typical of the salt marsh, 

 indicating that the spring tides bring in sufficient sea water to elimi- 

 nate plants less tolerant of salt. 



Regarding its local distribution, Ludlow Griscom (in W. Montagna, 

 1942) noted: "One of the curious things about the Sharp-tailed 

 Sparrow * * * is that as you proceed northward the bird tends to 

 become local. In a good marsh on the south shore of Long Island, 

 for:instance, Sharp-tails are ubiquitous and abundant. By the time 

 you reach the coast of Massachusetts north of Boston,* * * for no 



