EASTERN SHARP-TAILED SPARROW 805 



around, stretching up to almost double their running height. They occasionally 

 alight in bushes or small trees, and I have seen them running about a stone-wall 

 near the marsh like mice. 



A. Sprunt and E. B. Chamberlain (1949) write of them on the win- 

 tering grounds: "The Sharp-tail responds well to the 'squeak.' One 

 may stop in a patch of marsh which is apparently birdless, make the 

 squeak noise, and suddenly up will pop these inquisitive little birds, 

 peering here and there and balancing and swaying on the marsh grass 

 stems." 



In 1890, William Brewster studied several colonies of these birds 

 on the Massachusetts coast, notably one at Revere. He reports 

 (MS.): "They were along ditches (not tide creeks) and the edges of 

 salt ponds bordered by dense, matted, fine and short grass (not coarse 

 sedge such as occurs on the tide creeks). 



"When flushed they would fly only a few rods and then drop into a 

 ditch where they would run very swiftly and much like mice as they 

 often took advantage of a shelving piece of bank by skulking well out 

 of sight beneath it. 



"Two * * * were sitting. When flushed for the first time they 

 started about six or eight feet ahead of us rising in the usual 

 manner without any preliminary running or tumbling about on the 

 ground. * * * Neither bird chirped or came back about us but both, 

 after flying thirty yards or so, alighted, one in a ditch, the other on a 

 bare mud flat and began running and dodging among the mud lumps 

 and grass in the usual characteristic way. 



"These breeding Sharp-tails show themselves on the wing much 

 more freely than do autumn birds. * * * The characteristic flight 

 was short and hovering the bird rising to a height of six or eight feet 

 and often fluttering along for a few yards dropping again into the 

 grass. Sometimes one would go 100 to 200 yards, however, in which 

 case it generiiUy moved swiftly in long, gentle sweeps or undulations 

 resembling closely those of an English Sparrow. * * * We several 

 times saw a bird rise to a height of 15 or 20 feet and fly 100 yards or 

 more in a perfectly straight, level course, moving as slowly and feebly 

 as a Rail and sometimes dropping its feet and legs in a similar manner. 

 A bird feeding young in the nest always flew in this way both going 

 and returning." 



F. H. Allen (in litt.) writes me: "The bird in flight presents a 

 strange appearance, as if the head end and tail end were about equal 

 in length. The flight is direct and steady, very different from that of 

 the Savannah Sparrow." Thomas NuttaU (1903 ed.) commented on 

 these birds walking on floating weeds as successfully as on land. 

 G. E. Woolfenden (1956) said: "When searching for food. Sharp- 

 tailed Sparrows walk through the dense black grass, deftly brushing 



