22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



plumage before they leave. Some straggle back in September ; 

 more arrive in October, and the full complement appears with 

 the first cold weather of November. 



ZonotricMa albicoUis. 



Onl}' occasional, in winter and during the migrations ; although 

 very abundant on the neighboring mainland. 



Melospiza melodia. 



Common ; resident ; but most numerous from October to April, 

 as most of them pass northward for the summer. 



Melospiza palustris. 



Common ; resident, I think, as I saw them after May, although 

 I did not observe them through either of the two summers. 

 They seemed most plentiful in November, when many were sing- 

 ing. The ordinary chirp of this species is totally different from 

 that, of the last. A timid bird, courting the seclusion of the 

 thick bushes that border the marsh, it forms a sort of connecting 

 link between the two last species that frequent open grassy 

 places and sparse shrubbery, and the two next, that are confined 

 to the marsh itself. 



Ammodromus caudaoutus. 



Living side by side with the next, and with the same general 

 habits and manners, the sharp-tailed finch nevertheless has some 

 obvious peculiarities, as compared with the seaside. As the two 

 species spring up together from the reeds, the sharp-tailed is re- 

 cognized at a glance by its inferior size, and its general yellow- 

 ish appearance, closely resembling, in these respects, the Gotur- 

 niculus passerinus, the place of which it appears to fill in the 

 marshes. Seen at the same hasty moment, the seaside looks 

 more like the marsh sparrow; but the general impression re- 

 ceived is of a gray, instead of a rufous bird ; and its nearest 

 approach, in color, is to the Poospiza Belli. The difference in plu- 

 mage between spring specimens, in full dress, of the sharp-tailed, 

 and the young of the same, in the fall, is striking, and greater 

 than has usually been mentioned ; it consists chiefly in the pale- 

 ness or almost want of the orange-buff that marks the highest 

 condition. There is also a remarkable difference between the two 

 species of Ammodromus^ in the time of the vernal moult. The 

 seaside finches were all found in full feather, and with highly 



[May 2, 



