40 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



and snow lock fast the uplands. At this time flocks of fifty or a hundred or 

 more Crows may be seen walking sedately in the short grass or searching the 

 eel-grass and sandflats at low tide. All is game that comes to their net : fish, 

 dead or alive, various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and any carrion that 

 may be washed up on the marsh. When severe winter weather has frozen the 

 creeks and covered the marshes with ice, Crows may frequently be seen search- 

 ing in the cracks between the ice cakes or on the edges of the scattered pools 

 made by the force of the tides. They even fish off the edge of ice cakes. 



The Meadowlark also enjoys the marsh, but although a few may linger in 

 cold weather, they are rarely to be seen when extensive ice formation occurs. 

 The Bobolink, Red-winged Blackbird, and Bronzed Crackle in summer, and the 

 Rusty Crackle during the migrations, find good feeding in the salt marshes. 

 Barn, Cliff, Bank, and Tree Swallows skim the marshes as they do the surface 

 of a pond for the insects to be found there, and gather in large flocks in middle 

 and late summer from all the surrounding country, preparatory to their south- 

 ward migration. Posts, stumps, "staddles," gunners' blinds, in fact, every 

 available prominence is covered at times so as to appear black with the crowding 

 birds, among which the Tree Swallow takes first rank in point of numbers. At 

 a signal they all rise, showing alternately their white breasts and dark backs. 

 Around every available resting-place the ground is white with the Swallows' 

 droppings, in which numerous bayberries appear prominently. 



The Kingbird makes its erratic flight over the marsh after insects and alights, 

 screaming, on post or " staddle." The enterprising Robin, as he visits the 

 beach, visits also the marshes, and the Song Sparrow occasionally strays there 

 from the neighboring fields. On rare occasions the Ipswich Sparrow leaves the 

 dunes for the marsh. The Savanna Sparrow and the Sharp-tailed Sparrow are, 

 however, the most characteristic summer Passerine birds of the salt marshes, 

 and they both make their nests there, or rather on the borders of the marsh and 

 on islands wherever the ground is elevated enough to escape the high tide of the 

 full moon. Here, cleverly concealed in the dried thatch and eel-grass thrown up 

 by the early spring and autumn tides, their nests are to be looked for, and, it 

 may be added, less often found. The Nelson Sharp-tailed Sparrow is to be 

 found as an autumn migrant on the same marshes, while its subspecies the 

 Acadian Sharp-tail is a very common spring and autumn migrant. In the salt 

 marshes the Sharp-tailed Sparrow takes the place of the Marsh Wrens in the 

 fresh-water marshes. Both groups of birds are most interesting, and are seldom 

 seen except by one who looks for them. They are an unknown quantity to the 

 casual observer. Both are very deft in concealing themselves, and in moving 

 about through the grass and reeds. Both have curious songs, although that of 

 the Sharp-tails is much more suggestive of the hissing of hot iron in water 



