SONG-BIRDS. Sparrows 



addition having but the ghost of a voice, that it will not be 

 strange if you overlook it. 



Sharp-tailed Sparrow: Ammodramus caudacutus* 



Length : 5-5.50 inches. 



Male and Female : Bill extremely sharp for a Sparrow. Above olive- 

 gray v^ith bronze glints, streaked writh black on the back, some 

 feathers with light edges ; marroon stripes on head ; buff stripe 

 through eye ; buff or orange cheeks ; buff sides to breast, streaked 

 with brown ; belly gray ; edge of wings yellow ; tail feathers 

 sharply pointed ; feet grayish blue. 



Song : Wheezy and choking, which Dr. D wight describes as *♦ Lic-se- 

 e-e-oop." 



Season : Common summer resident. 



Breeds : Through its range ; two broods a season. 



Nest : Of coarse grasses, lined with grass and furze, firmly fastened 

 between tussocks. 



Eggs : Grayish white, thickly speckled with brown. 



Bange: Salt-marshes of the Atlantic coast, from Prince Edward 

 Island and Nova Scotia to the Gulf States. 



The Sharp-tailed Sparrow must be identified by the brown- 

 ish orange or buff colouring of the sides of its head and the 

 sharp point which terminates each separate tail feather. I 

 specify this because many people mistake the term sharp- 

 tailed for forked-t2iiied, and expect the bird to have a tail 

 like the Barn Swallow. 



These Sparrows are shy and rather uninteresting, keeping 

 close under cover of sedges and the marsh weeds that edge 

 tide water, and have a feeble flight and a very poor song. 

 They tend to breed in colonies, and choose their haunts here 

 and there without any seeming method, so that they appear 

 to be rare in many eligible places. 



Wilson credits them with all the nimbleness of Sand- 

 pipers, running about after dusk and roosting on the 

 ground ; and says that they are so fond of the vicinity of 

 water that they are only driven from it by strong north- 

 easterly storms. He also says that their diet is chiefly sea- 

 food, scraps of shell-fish, drift, etc., which gives the flesh a 

 sedgy taste. 



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