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



Winter range. — Winters from South Carolina (Charleston County) 

 south to east central Florida (Titusville) and along the Gulf coast of 

 northern Florida (Wakulla County, Tarpon Springs) ; casually north 

 to Virginia (Smith's Island), west to Louisiana (Buras), and south to 

 southern Florida (Cape Sable). 



Egg dates. — New Jei-sey: 24 records, May 22 to August 21; 12 

 records, May 30 to June 22. 



AMMOSPIZA GAUD ACUTA ALTERA Todd 



James Bay Sharp-tailed Sparrow 

 Contributed by Norman P. Hill 



Habits 



The James Bay race of the sharp-tailed sparrow was described as 

 Ammospiza caudacuta altera by W. E. C. Todd in 1938, the type 

 locality being East Main, James Bay, Ontario, Canada, The breed- 

 ing range is restricted to the marshes at the southern end of James 

 Bay. It is separated by 600 miles from the nearest nelsoni to the 

 west and by 475 miles from the nearest subvirgata to the southeast. 



H. F. Lewis (1939) thus describes the marshes this race inhabits: 



James Bay, which is about 230 miles long and 140 miles wide, occuiDies the 

 lowest part of a shallow depression with sides that are very flat and slope very 

 gently. * * * Although the tide rises and falls vertically only 5 to 7 feet, the 

 southern and western shores are so nearly horizontal that in the course of this 

 rise and fall the waters of the bay advance and recede over flats of fairly firm 

 material that are often from two to four miles in width. * * * Above normal 

 high-tide mark, * * * is a border of sedge-grown marsh, usually about a mile 

 wide, with fresh to brackish water. In exceptionally high tides, the bay over- 

 flows this marsh for short periods. Back of the marsh are woods, first a profusion 

 of willows, then white spruce and poplar, often 75 or more feet high, then black 

 spruce and tamarack. 



The James Bay area has been heavily glaciated and relatively more 

 recently than farther south, so the soil is glacial debris of gravel, 

 boulders, sand, and clay in the process of rearrangement by water 

 activity. 



As would be expected, the sharp-tails are found in sedge and 

 grass areas. Juncus gerardi, Car ex maritima, Scirpus rufiis, and 

 Triglochin sp. are reported in these marshes. The plants are more 

 separate and upright, so the vegetation gets less matted than in 

 Spartina patens areas, and the marshes have a more varied appearance 

 than those farther south. 



There are no published data on habits, nest, young, molts, song, 

 food, and so forth, of this race. I see no reason to believe they differ 

 from any of the others. In the field, altera cannot be separated from 



