V0l ibV3 IU ] Dwight, The Sharp-tailed Sparrows. 2JJ 



by numerous observers. The three races are very much alike in 

 habits and their chief trait is secretiveness. True caudacutus may 

 be found on salt marshes hiding successfully under the sheets of 

 sea-weed and drift brought by the tide and left to dry on the 

 banks of the ditches, or nimbly racing through the short grass 

 and weeds peculiar to such localities. Their wheezy gasp of a 

 song may be heard from tussock, stake or block of drift wood 

 and on the least alarm, the birds vanish, generally preferring not 

 to take wing. During the migration they are more reckless in 

 exposing themselves and often cling to tall reeds or perch on 

 them when pursued. They usually go in small bands associated 

 with the other races and with Ammodramus maritimus, a species 

 that is a bosom friend at all seasons. The nests are hidden in 

 drift or protected by a tussock of grass. 



Of nelsoni little seems to be known. Mr. E. W. Nelson has a 

 little to tell of their habits and even states that they " utter a short 

 unmusical song " in the autumn (Nelson, Bull. Essex Inst., VII, 

 1877, 107). He found them abundant on the Calumet Marshes, 

 near Chicago, Illinois, and observed a few in June, probably breed- 

 ing. Hitherto no nest has been taken, although a correspondent 

 writes that he secured one some years ago in this very locality. 

 As he sold the nest and eggs, and has lost all the data, and I have 

 been unable to trace the purchaser, I think it best to say no more 

 about it and wait for an authentic set to be secured, before 

 attempting a description. A brief account is given of this race by 

 Goss (Birds of Kansas, 189 1, 449) and he speaks of the song as 

 " a short weak unmusical twittering warble." He observed two 

 young in first plumage, of which no specimens have as yet been 

 taken, so far as I know. 



Since my description of subvirgat us was published nine years ago 

 I have had opportunity nearly every summer to study this bird and 

 yet there is but little to add to my original observations. The 

 birds are scattered rather abundantly in the breeding season over 

 immense tracts of meadow land along the Petitcodiac River in New 

 Brunswick. I have traced them for twenty miles and notice that 

 they most frequent certain damp spots and utilize the narrow 

 ditches as highways. These meadows are diked off from the tide, 

 and are in no sense salt marshes where the tide creeps at will. A 



