SPARROWS 409 



ings tend to segregate or become wreathed at the larger ends 

 of the eggs. A set taken at Newport, Delaware, May 25, 1894, 

 measure 0.70 x 0.57, 0.70 x 0.56, 0.66 x 0.57, 0.71 x 0.57, 

 0.69 X 0.56. The collector states the nest was on the ground 

 in a small bunch of grass in a grass field. 



Genus AMMODRAMUS Swainson. 



549. Ammodramus caudacutus (Gmel.). Sharp- tailed 

 Sparrow; Sharp-tailed Finch; Lady Blackburn's Finch. 



Plumage of adults : above dull brownish olive green, edged with pearl and 

 grayish on back ; crown olive brown with a median ashy gray line or stripe ; 

 bend of wing lemon yellow ; tail olive brown, very indistinctly barred, the 

 feathers narrow and pointed and the outer ones much shorter than inner 

 ones ; ear coverts gray ; ochraceous buff lines over eye and down side of 

 throat ; breast and sides white, washed with buffy and streaked with clove 

 brown or blackish. Immature plumage : crown and wings nearly black ; 

 above and on sides of throat before eye buff, broadly streaked on back and 

 narrowly on throat and sides with clove brown ; tail olive brown with clove 

 brown streaks on shafts and indistinct barring ; otherwise similar to adults. 

 Wing 2.25 ; culmen 0.57; tarsus 0.88; tail 2.00. 



Geog. Dist. — Atlantic coast from the salt marshes of Cumberland County, 

 Maine, to Maryland and South Carolina ; wintering from North Carolina to 

 Florida. 



County Records. — Cumberland ; found at Scarboro, late in October, 1876, 

 (Brown, B. N. 0. C. 3, p. 98) ; found at Scarboro in summer 1879, seemingly 

 breeding, ("Brown, ibid. 5, p. 52) ; Mr. Norton also mentions it breeding at 

 Scarboro, (J. M. 0. S. 1904, p. 46). York; a juvenile plumaged specimen 

 taken at Wells, July 24, 1897, (Norton, J. M. 0. S. 1904, p. 46). 



The species in question is confined to the salt marshes of 

 the coast of this State from Scarboro to Wells, and probably 

 under a hundred pair occur. Mr. Brown gives the extreme 

 dates as from late May to November fifteenth. Mr. Norton 

 found it as early as June fifth and not later than August 

 twenty-eighth when it was moulting and not in condition to 



(Foot Note. Hypothetical List. Though perhaps too vaguely apprehended it is well to men- 

 tion the fact that Henslow's Sparrow, a species closely related to the Grasshopper Sparrow, 

 might occur here and should be carefully considered as a possible species to be differentiated 

 from specimens of Grasshopper Sparrow ; its lateral tail feathers are much shorter than the mid- 

 dle pair ; the breast and sides are streaked strongly with black.) 



