558 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



spring ; the sides of the crown, as well as the dark markings on tlue back, 

 more intensified, and in greater contrast witli the lighter ashy and olive 

 tints. 



Habits. The Sharp-tailed Finch is one of the most striking and well- 

 characterized of land-birds, and as peculiar to the sea-shore as the Tringce. 

 In habits it very closely resembles the whole family of Waders in many 

 striking respects. Like them it feeds upon small crustaceans and minute 

 marine insects, keeping about the water's edge, walking upon the floating 

 weeds and other substances raised by the tide, preferring this mode of life 

 to a more inland residence, and only resorting to the uplands to feed upon 

 the seeds of grasses and sedges when their food fails them at the water's 

 edge. 



Dr. Coues is of the opinion that this Ijird does not breed in the neighbor- 

 hood of Beaufort, N. C, and that it leaves for the North in May, having 

 a more northern habitat than A. maritima. He does not coincide with those 

 who detect a resemblance between the actions of the Ammodrami and of 

 the Sandpipers. He thinks the manner in which they climb the reeds, slide 

 up and down, and hang from them in various attitudes, is more like that 

 of Nuthatches and Titmice. On the ground they seem to him unmistakably 

 sparrow-like. 



This Sharp-tailed Finch is abundant along the coasts of Connecticut and 

 Ehode Island, and is also found in Massachusetts, though sparingly, and only 

 in a few congenial localities. In the marshes of Charles River, near Boston, 

 this species is occasionally common in the breeding-season. In the summer 

 of 1869, Mr. H. W. Henshaw found quite a number of their nests. Mr. 

 Maynard has also taken it among the marshes of Ipswich, which is probably 

 about its extreme northern limit. It has not, so far as I am aware, been 

 traced to Maine. In these localities it probably raises two broods in a sea- 

 son, as it appears there in May, and remains until into October. They are 

 eminently terrestrial, run on the ground like mice, are difficult to flush, and 

 can only be shot while on the wing. They lie close to the ground, and con- 

 ceal themselves in the grass. 



They are also very numerous in the marshes in the neighborhood of New 

 York, and especially so in New Jersey, breeding along that coast to Cape 

 May. How much farther south than this they are found I cannot state, but 

 I did not meet with any at Cape Charles, where the viaritimus was very 

 abundant. 



In the winter this species is found in large flocks along the shores of South 

 Carolina and Georgia. J\Ir. Audubon, however, did not find any in Florida. 

 In the marshes near Charleston they are found in immense flocks, so much 

 so that Audubon has known of forty being killed at a single shot. They 

 search in the sedgy marshes for their food when the tide is out, and, on the 

 approach of the returning waters, retreat to the higher shores and to the 

 rice embankments. 



