THE OSPREY. 



155 



Walter Rcithschild depositt-d in the Zoolnn;ical 

 Gardens a 'J'rstudo dmnlini 150 years old; and 

 Gilbert White's T. imirgiiiata was 54: but one in 

 Nf)rfolk was asserted to be 100 (Norwich Nat. 

 Tr. ii. pp. 164, 174|. In the Natural History 

 Museum there is an oil-painting of a pike which 

 had been in a pool 3b7 years havinf;- been orig-i- 

 nally caught by the Emperor Frederick II in 

 12.^0. The reptile-house at the Zoological 

 Gardens is stated to eontain a Mississippi alli- 

 gator of 20, and until lately a Reticulated 

 Python of the same age. 



Prof. Newton, to whose assistance I am in 

 many ways indebted, has drawn attention to Dr. 

 Weismann"s "Essays on Heredity," particularly 

 one on the diu'ation of animal life, where the 

 uniformity with which birds maintain their 

 numbers, which I have before referred to, is 

 dwelt upon, and several other questions bearing 

 on the age of birds. Dr. Weismann is of opinion 



that all birds and mammals outlive the period of 

 repniduction. but in the case of birds the facts 

 collected rather show the contrary. He also 

 thinks that only in the largest mammalia — 

 whales and elephants — is the duration of life 

 equal to the longest-lived birds, but we require 

 more facts. 



So far as birds are concerned, the points on 

 which information is wanted are principallj-: — 



1. Are birds of some families longer-lived 



than tho>e of others? 



2. Do female birds live long-er tlian males? 



3. Are birds which are long- in their incuba- 



tion therefore long-lived? 



4. Do large birds live longer than small ones? 



5. Do birds in general live as long as 



mammals? 

 Do birds whi 

 than birds which lav ten? 



THE SHARP-TAILED SPARROW IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

 By Foster H. Bk.\ckett, Boston, Mass. 



The Sharp-tailed Sparrow is probably one of 

 the least known of the c<^mmon birds of Massa- 

 chusetts. Being very locally distributed during 

 the breeding season, conlined to the salt-water 

 marshes during the migrations, and a bird of 

 very retiring habits, it is very easily overlooked. 

 By some it is considered a rare bird, but there 

 are a number of marshes about Boston where it 

 breeds regularly; and on the South River 

 marshes in Marshheld, where most of these ob- 

 servations were made, it is very abundant. 



This sparrow reaches Massachusetts from the 

 .south about the middle of May. the 20th being 

 the tirst date I have recorded, although it may 

 occur a few days earlier. When they first arrive 

 the marshes are brown and bare, and the birds 

 are then found along the small creeks and 

 ditches running under the overhanging banks 

 or skulking" among the dry reeds, apparently 

 anxious to escape observation. If by chance 

 one is found away from the protection of the 

 banks or rushes, it endeavors to conceal itself in 

 the scanty cover, running rapidly through the 

 short grass, looking for a hiding place, and 

 finally disappearing wherever a clump of grass 

 or bunch of reeds gives a little thicker cover, 

 returning to the shelter of the creeks and ditches 

 as soon as possible. 



At first the birds are few in numbers, but 

 others soon arrive, and then the marshes are 

 literally alive with them. They can be flushed 

 every few yards from the patches of new growth 

 which has now attained a height of five or six 

 inches. 



The Acadian Sparrows arrive about the same 

 time as the other Sharp-tailed Sparrows, and are 

 found associated with them mitil about June 3, 

 when they decrease in numbers, and finally dis- 

 appear, passing to their breeding places further 

 north. 



The last of Mayor first of June, the Sharp- 

 tailed Sparrows leave the marshes, at the mouth 

 of the river, and move to higher and drier por- 

 tions further up the river, where there is less 

 danger of high tides. Here they make their 

 home, during the months of June and July, 



building their nests and raising- their voung, 

 and are seldom .seen, until the young are able to 

 leave the nest, unless one goes espectally in 

 search of them. 



During the breeding season, the males make a 

 brave but rather unsuccessful attempt at sing- 

 ing. Perched upon a dried weed-stalk, reed or 

 other convenient perch, they utter a few .short 

 ga.sping notes, or hovering a few feet above the 

 grass they gasp out a husky sputtering warble 

 and iunnediately drop into the grass as if stage 

 struck or ashamed of their performance. The 

 notes are so feeble that they can scarcely be 

 heard more than forty or fifty feet distant," and 

 the performance seems more like a pantomime 

 than a bona fide attempt at singing. 



At this .season they spend a great deal of time 

 on the ground, and" are very reluctant to take 

 wing, doing so only when clo.sely pressed, and 

 when all means of concealment fails. So clo.sely 

 do they cling to their cover that one can almost 

 step on them before they will fly, and then they 

 will drop into the first available place of con- 

 cealment, to run rapidly through the grass and 

 rushes to a more secure retreat. 



Their favorite breeding places are those parts 

 of the marshes where the ground is very .soft 

 and yielding, and will not bear the weiglit of a 

 man or large animal. Here they build their 

 nests, composed of dried grasses and lined with 

 a finer quality of the same material, carefully 

 concealing them in the matted grass, and fre- 

 quently entering them by a tunnel or passage 

 two or three feet in length. 



In marshes where there are no bog-gy places 

 the nests ai'e generally placed in tussocks of 

 grass along the banks of ditches, concealed as 

 before by the overhanging grass. The eggs are 

 usually four or five in number, varying from a 

 grayish-white to a greenish-white." and finely 

 speckled with bro%vn. The first .set is laid early 

 in June, and there is often a second set about 

 the middle of July. 



Alxnit the loth of July the birds appear among 

 the rushes and tall grass along the river bank, 

 accompanied by the young, which are curious 



