EASTERN SHARP-TAILED SPARROW 807 



and at times decidedly musical and pleasing." It has been described 

 as the plunging of a hot iron in water, which may or may not be 

 preceded or followed by one or more sharp tics. Brewster (MS.) 

 adds that "it would not be wide of the mark to say that the Sharp- 

 tail's song seems to combine a part or all of the songs of the Ilenslow's, 

 and Yellow-winged or Savannah Sparrow's and the Long-billed 

 Marsh Wren's." To this list I would add the seaside sparrow, though 

 the sharp-tail's song is thinner, less liquid in quality, and carries less 

 well. 



A. A. Saunders (in litt.) has contributed the following description: 

 "The song of the Sharp-tailed Sparrow is mainly a short fricative 

 buzz, occasionally %vith a few introductory notes before it. The 

 buzz fades away in intensity, starting comparatively loudly and 

 growing softer till it can barely be heard, and one is not quite sure 

 just when it actually ends. The buzz is fricative, rather than sibilant, 

 that is, it sounds like a series of /s or ths rather than s or z. Songs 

 vary from 1.4 to 2.5 seconds, averaging about 1.7 seconds. The 

 pitch varies from F"' to C"", and the pitch interval from 1 to 2}y^ 

 tones." 



In my own notes, I have recorded several song patterns which may 

 be phoneticized as ts-ts-sssssss-tsik, ts-ts-ts-ts-ts-tsi-lik, and tsi-lik 

 tssss-s-s-s~s — s. I have heard songs lasting up to 5 or 6 seconds. 

 Woolfenden (1956) recorded them to 20 seconds. 



The song is given in two manners, from a perch and in flight. 

 William Brewster (MS.) says: "The Sharp-tail usually sings from 

 the top of a cluster of tall grass but sometimes perches on a stake. 

 It sits as erect as a Hawk and quite as motionless. I could not detect 

 any quivering of the wings or tail and was not even siu'e that the 

 throat swelled perceptively. * * * The bird has one peculiar habit 

 in connection with its singing, viz. it rarely sings more than twice 

 consecutively and often only once from the same perch, taking numer- 

 ous short flights from place to place." I have often observed the 

 flight song at Barnstable, Tvlass., and Tiverton, R.I. The bird 

 springs up from the grass, rises about 20 feet, then flutters in a semi- 

 circle with quivering wings and drooping head and tail while singing 

 three or four times, and finally drops straight downward rapidly and 

 silently. Sometimes the bird makes this flight without uttering a 

 sound. I have not heard singing earlier than May 23, and the latest 

 recorded date is August 9 (A. A. Saunders, 194S). Walter Faxon 

 reported to William Brewster their singing in the Neponset Marshes 

 in Massachusetts on July 8, 1890, when the temperature stood at 92°. 



The call note is a soft scolding and chirping, uttered relatively 

 infrequently. It is variously described as tic, cup, chuck, tchep, tsip 

 chut, etc. 



