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AMMODRAMUS PA LUSTRIS— WILSON. 



MARSH SHORE-FINGH. 



Swamp Sparrow, Fringilla jualustris, Wils. Amer. Orn. 

 Fringiila palustris, Bonap. Syn. 

 Swamp Sparrow, Fringilla Georgiana, Nutt. Man. 

 Swamp Sparrow, Fringilla palustris, Aud. Orn. Biog. 



Specific Character — Upper parts yellowish-brown, broadly mark- 

 ed with black, flanks more faintly streaked with the same; on either 

 side of the throat two black bands ; bill and fore part of the breast 

 ash gray. Adult with the upper part of the head deep chestnut-red; 

 a band from the nostril over the eye, becoming broader behind the 

 eye, and continuing the entire length of the head, grayish-blue, 

 tinged with yellow ; upper parts yellowish-brown, marked with 

 black more conspicuously on the fore part ; quills brown, edged 

 with dull red, as are the tail feathers ; inner secondaries and their 

 coverts darker, and broadly edged with yellowish-red ; cheeks dark 

 brown ; throat grayish-white, the sides streaked with dusky ; fore 

 neck and fore part of the breast pale bluish-gray ; sides of the 

 body yellowish-brown ; abdomen grayish-white. Young with the 

 upper part of the head streaked with black, with a narrow central 

 bluish-gray line. Length five inches, wing two and three-eighths. 



During the summer months, we find this species in low, swampy 

 situations, skulking among the sedgy borders of creeks, subsisting 

 on seeds aud insects. It constructs its nest on the ground, among the 

 rank weeds ; the eggs, from four to five in number, are dull white, 

 spotted with reddish-brown. During the winter, it inhabits the 

 swamps and margins of water courses in the Southern States. 



