806 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 pakt 2 



stems aside with their bill as they go. Open areas are generally 

 traversed by rapid running. * * * They stop to investigate openings 

 in the matted understoiy of grass, often sticking their head into the 

 holes." 



My own observations have been made mostly in Massachusetts, 

 These birds are easily watched, almost tame if not pursued, and soon 

 forget the presence of a silent observer. They readily show themselves 

 along ditches and on the mud banks where they search for food. The 

 habit of stretching the head and neck upward to survey the neighbor- 

 hood, described above by Townsend, is their most characteristic 

 gesture. When hunting food, they walk and run, rather than hop, in 

 a zig-zag course in the grass or across the mud, picking up particles of 

 food as they go along. They drink the water in the ditches, usually 

 rather brackish. I have seen them fly to a partially submerged piece 

 of driftwood, scoop up water in the mandible and tip the head 

 backward to swallow it. On one occasion in early June in Dartmouth, 

 Mass., a very high tide had forced the birds into the Iva bushes where 

 they were surprisingly clumsy in alighting and in maintaining their 

 balance. Sharp-tails are most active early in the morning and late 

 in the afternoon, but they do not retire completely during the middle 

 of the day. On several occasions, I have found them active through 

 the dusk until it became too dark to see. 



F. V. Hebard {in litt.) recorded "feigning" in this species observed 

 Aug. 1, 1953, in New Jersey: "Most of the young were out of the nest, 

 but one pair of adults first scurried through the grass like mice and then 

 flew from one bush to another as if injured." He defined "feigning" 

 broadly as any "form of behavior such as rodent-running or impeded 

 flight which tends to divert a predator from eggs or young." I have 

 several times been led away from a presumed nesting site by a bird 

 making short flights with much calling and, after going about a hun- 

 dred yards, circling back to the starting point. 



Little is known of the life span of the sharp-tailed sparrow. G. E. 

 Woolfenden (in litt.) has reported a female banded at Lavallette, N.J., 

 July 3, 1955, and recovered in the same place on the same island 

 Aug. 27, 1957. This bird, originally netted and banded at her nest, 

 was therefore at least 3 years old when retaken, and feathers reappear- 

 ing on her incubation patch indicated that she had bred in 1957 also. 



Voice. — The song of the sharp-tailed sparrow is not impressive. 

 WiUiam Brewster (MS.) writes: "These sparrows are far from per- 

 sistent singers. At times fully 15 minutes would pass without a 

 sound. * * * When one began, however, he would usually start 

 others, and for a few minutes there would be general singing all over 

 the marsh. The song is the faintest and carries the poorest of any 

 bird song that I have ever heard. * * * Nonetheless, it is varied 



