BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 273 



River marshes in Cambridge." ' Dr. Brewer, referring to the same instance, 

 states that " quite a number " of nests were found, and he further asserts, appar- 

 ently wholly on the strength of the evidence just quoted, that " in the marshes 

 of Charles River, near Boston, this species is occasionally common in the breed- 

 ing-season." ^ Mr. Henshaw, whom I have recently questioned on the subject, 

 has preserved no written notes respecting his experience, but he is positive that 

 he did not meet with the Sharp-tails in summer either before or after 1869, 

 and almost equally so that he took only three or four birds and but one nest con- 

 taining a full set of eggs, although he dimly recalls finding several other nests, 

 most of which were empty and apparently deserted. He thinks, however, that 

 during the year just mentioned the colony must have comprised, before it was 

 molested, at least six or eight pairs of breeding birds. They were confined to 

 Whittemore Point, Cambridgeport, a marshy promontory, five or six acres in 

 extent, which jutted out into the bay not far from the present location of the 

 building known as Riverbank Court. The marshes on this promontory, unlike 

 those at its rear, were never flooded, save by exceptionally high tides, but they 

 contained a number of shallow pools and ditches filled with brackish water and 

 bordered by rank, matted vegetation in which the Sharp-tails were given to con- 

 cealing themselves and their nests. All this I remember with perfect distinct- 

 ness, for I often accompanied Mr. Henshaw on excursions to Whittemore Point 

 in 1869 and 1870. During a visit made on June 29 of the former year we 

 flushed several adult Sharp-tailed Sparrows, and a fledgling, just out of the 

 nest but unable to fly, was found hiding in the grass at the edge of one of the 

 pools. I still have the skin of a breeding female ^ shot on this occasion. No 

 doubt the Sharp-tails had frequented the place in summer for many years before 

 we became aware of their presence. It is also possible, if less probable, that 

 they continued to return for several years later. The colony, although certainly 

 much disturbed by us in 1869, was by no means wholly broken up that season, 

 and the ground which it occupied remained practically unchanged for many 

 years afterwards. Neither Mr. Henshaw nor I can remember looking for the 

 birds in summer after 1869. Whittemore Point was, I believe, the only locality 

 in the Cambridge Region where the Sharp-tailed Sparrow has been found 

 nesting. I doubt if it ever bred in the marshes higher up the river (that is, 

 above Brookline Bridge), for they were not perfectly suited to its somewhat pecu- 

 liar requirements. But it may well have maintained in former times more than 

 one flourishing colony about the shores of the Back Bay in Brookline and per- 



ij. A. Allen, American Naturalist, III, 1870, 634. 



^ Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, History of North American Birds, I, 1S74, 558. 



' No. 893, collection of William Brewster. 



