SOUTHERN SHARP-TAILED SPARROW 813 



gerardi, and several species of ScirpiLS. The marshes themselves vary 

 in size from the extensive ones around Chincoteague, Va., to rather 

 narrow strips flanking estuaries in J\Iaryland, where the sharp-tails 

 may be found breeding within a few yards of grasshopper and 

 Henslow's sparrows. South of the breeding range of A. c. diversa the 

 coastal marshes are no longer green and meadowlilce, but become 

 coarse, sparse, tall, and brown, with Jmicus roemerianus, Salicornia 

 europea, and Eliocharis sp. the predominant plant growth. While 

 the sharp-tails occupy this plant association commonly in winter, 

 they have never been known to nest in it. 



LilvC the more northern representatives of A. c. caudacuta, this 

 subspecies is distinctly colonial, and chooses one section of marsh over 

 another without apparent reason. A census of a colony in Somerset 

 County, !^Id., showed a density of 17 pau-s in 17 acres (P. F. Springer 

 and R. E. Stewart, 1948). Its habits and behavior are not signifi- 

 cantly different from those of A. c. caudacuta. Nests and eggs de- 

 scribed by H. H. Bailey (1913) are similar in location and appearance 

 to those of the nominate race. Nests with full sets of eggs have been 

 found May 22 to August 21. 



Montagna (1942a) writes that "The race diversa chirps more fre- 

 quently than suhvirgata and caudacuta. * * * Also the occasional 

 flight songs of diversa which I witnessed did not seem as spectacular 

 as those of the other races to the north. The males rose only twenty 

 feet or so in the air, uttering the song repeatedly, in the ascent as well 

 as the descent. The song, too, seemed to be harsher and more varied 

 than that of caudacuta and suhvirgata." 



For comments on identification, see the appropriate section under 

 A. c. caudacuta. As far as is known, the plumage sequence and molts 

 are identical with those of that subspecies. 



Montagna (1942a) mentions that the diet of this race when he 

 studied them during June and July was almost exclusively small 

 blackish spiders, which they were also feeding to their young. 



Migi-ation consists chiefly of withdrawal down the coast to the main 

 wintering grounds along the South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida 

 coasts. Like A. c. caudacuta, a few birds cross Florida to the Gulf 

 coast and have been collected as far west as Louisiana (H. C. Ober- 

 holser, 1938). 



Distribution 



Range. — Tidal marshes from Chesapeake Bay and southern New 

 Jersey to northern Florida. 



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

 in salt and brackish marshes from upper Chesapeake Bay (Sandy 

 Point, Kent Narrows) and southern New Jersey (Tuckerton, inter- 

 grading with A. c. caudacuta) south to Virginia (Wallop's Island). 



