274 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



haps, also, in Boston, for before this portion of the bay was obliterated by filling, 

 it was bordered in many places by salt marshes, some of which probably afforded 

 ground similar to that on Whittemore Point. 



Since 1 869 I have met with breeding Sharp-tails at no locality nearer Cam- 

 bridge than Revere. Here on June 19, 1890, Mr. Walter Fa.xon and I found at 

 least twenty-five pairs of the birds and no less than five of their nests. The 

 colony was mainly confined to a few acres of rather dry marsh hemmed in on 

 two sides by higher ground and crossed by a chain of small, brackish pools 

 narrowly fringed by tall grass, chiefly the growth of previous years. The nests 

 were hidden in this vegetation. One of them contained young nearly old 

 enough to fly, the others, eggs in various stages of incubation. 



159. Ammodramus nelsoni (Allen). 

 Nelson's Sparrow. Nelson's Sharp-tailed Finch. 



Formerly an uncommon transient visitor in autumn. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



October 7, 1871, two taken, Cambridgeport, H. W. Henshaw. 



October 14, 1S74, one im. male' taken, Fresh Pond Marshes, W. Brewster. 



Mr. Henshaw has reported^ taking three specimens of Nelson's Sparrow 

 in the Cambridgeport Marshes. One of these birds (killed on May 31, 1871) 

 has been since referred to siibvirgatiis by Dr. J. Dwight, Jr.,^ but the original 

 identification of the other two (collected on October 7, 1871, and probably now 

 in the British Museum) remains, I believe, unchallenged. I have two examples 

 of Nelson's Sparrow which I shot in Cambridge, one ^ at Whittemore Point, 

 Cambridgeport, on October 9, 1871, the other in the Fresh Pond Marshes 

 between the Glacialis and Little River, on October 14, 1874. Neither of these 

 specimens is a typical representative of nelsoni, but the Cambridgeport one has 

 been identified with that race by Dr. Dwight, and the other bird seems to me to 

 be much nearer to it than to subvirmtiis. 



1 No. 892, collection of William Brewster. 



2 H. W. Henshaw, Auk, III, 1886, 486. 

 ^]. Dwight, Jr., Auk, IV, 1887, 236. 



■* No. 2824, collection of William Brewster. 



