DUSKY SEASIDE SPARROW 859 



the marshes, which is yjrobably only partially true. Instead of being 

 concentrated in the small nesting colonies, the birds now spread 

 throughout the marshes and remahi so through the winter. Perhaps 

 the lower concentration of food available in winter may force them to 

 reduce their density in their habitat. They also disperse to other 

 marshes, both brackish and fresh, up to 20 miles from the breeding 

 grounds. On Sept. 1(3, 1962, I found an adult in a marsh on Mosquito 

 Lagoon, about 5 miles from the closest colony. Another adult was 

 seen in a fresh water mai-sh north of Cocoa on Dec. 28, 19G2, during 

 the Christmas census. In a limited sense this might bo termed a 

 migration, but dispersal is more fitting. 



By late February or early March the birds start to move back into 

 their ancestral breeding colonies, and the cycle begins once more. 



Distribution 



Range. — The dusky seaside sparrow is resident in salt marshes of 

 eastern Orange and northern Brevard counties, central eastern Florida 

 (Persimmon Hammock on St. Johns River, near Indian River Cit}'-, 

 and Titusville, Merritt's Island). 



Egg dates. — Florida: about 40 records, April 19 to July 23. 



AMMOSPIZA MIRABILIS (Howell) 



Cape Sable Sparrow 



PLATES 47 AND 48 



Contributed by Louis A. Stimson 



Habits 



All seaside sparrows are noted for their secretiveness, but none has 

 proved more elusive and difficult to find than the Cape Sable sparrow, 

 the last avian species to be discovered on the North American conti- 

 nent. None of the great ornithologists who studied Florida birds in 

 the 19th century, from Audubon to Ridgway and Chapman, even 

 suspected its existance. It is small wonder that when Arthur H. 

 Howell (1919) discovered it on the swampy prairies of Flamingo near 

 Cape Sable in 1918, he considered its presence something of a miracle 

 and named the bird mirahilis. Now, following its extirpation from 

 those prairies by the disastrous humcane of 1935, and its possible 

 extermination by fire on much of its remaining southwest coast 

 habitat in 1962, we may be gravely concerned about its future. 



Howell (1919) recognized the bird's affinities by calling it the Cape 

 Sable seaside sparrow. The 1957 A.O.U. Check-List accords it full 

 specific standing in its vernacular name, Cape Sable sparrow, as well 



