198 LAND-BIRDS. 



a. About b\ inches long. Tail-feathers more sharply 

 pointed than in maritimus. (Edge of the wing, yellowish.) 

 Crown, brownish, black-streaked, and with a median line. 

 Superciliary line, and sides of the head, orange brown. Ear- 

 patch, and back, brown or gray, olive-tinted ; the latter dark- 

 streaked (with feathers pale-edged). Beneath, white ; breast, 

 brownish yellow, black-streaked. 



b. The nest and eggs * resemble very exactly those of the 

 Sea-side Finch, being found in marshes and on the sea-shore. 

 The eggs measure about .77X-55 of an inch, and are white, 

 gray-tinted, thickly, finely, and usually evenly marked with 

 brown, which sometimes predominates about the crown, or is 

 confluent. Mr. Brewster says that they are not laid here until 

 the first week of July, but these may belong to a second set.f 



c. With the Sharp-tailed Finches I can claim no intimate 

 acquaintance. They probably do not occur to the northward 

 of Massachusetts, where they are chiefly confined to a few lo- 

 calities, such as the salt-water marshes of Charles River, and 

 those at Ipswich. These places they reach in April, and do 

 not leave until October, or even the latter part of that month. 

 They sometimes frequent the fresh-water marshes, but gener- 

 ally prefer the sea-coast and its neighborhood. They run very 

 nimbly, and make their way so cleverly among the rushes and 

 tall grass that one cannot easily see them except by "flushing " 

 them, when they take a short flight and immediately drop to 

 conceal themselves. They are already very rare in this State, 

 and, I fear, will be soon exterminated here, $ as, from their 

 scarcity, they are unwisely persecuted every year by enter- 

 prising naturalists. Their extermination is facilitated by their 



coast of southern New England, breed- bird really has two sets, of which the 



ing only in salt and brackish marshes, first is laid during the first week of 



and not certainly known to occur to the June. W. B. 



northward of Rye Beach, New Hamp- J This was a misconception of the 



shire. W. B. true state of affairs at the time the 



* The eggs are usually smaller and passage was written, and the fears ex- 



mnch more finely marked than those pressed for the future were equally ill- 



of the Sea-side Finch. The latter spe- founded, for the Sharp-tails, although 



cies rarely if ever lays more than four certainly very local, continue to breed 



eggs, whereas the Sharp-tail commonly numerously in many of the salt marshes 



has five. W. B, along the coast of Massachusetts. 



t This inference was correct. The W. B. 



