CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 507 
549b. Acadian Sharp-tailed Finch. 
Ammodramus nelsoni subvirgatus (DWIGHT) NORTON. 1897. 
Fairly common about the salt marshes at the mouths of the 
streams emptying into Minas basin, King’s county, N.S.,from June to 
October. (H. F. Tufts.) Breeds not uncommonly on the Magdalen 
islands, N.S. near the seashore. I observed it at Grosse Isle. (Rev. C. J. 
Young.) Several specimens taken in the vicinity of Hampton, N.B. 
(Chamberlain.) A nest of this species was taken near Baddeck, Cape 
Breton island, July 26th, 1898; this species was not rare along the shore 
of the bay east of Baddeck. (Macoun.) A few birds in the salt 
marsh at Tignish, Prince Edward island were the only ones I could 
discover, although I searched in many other localities. (Dwight.) 
Taken at St. Denis de Kamouraska, south shore of St. Lawrence, 
eastern Quebec; breeding in some numbers. (Dionne.) A casual 
visitor at Ottawa, Ont. One shot in 1882, identified by Dr. Coues. 
(Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. V.) 
This form is peculiar to the fresh and salt water marshes of the 
Maritime Provinces of Canada, especially those bordering on the 
Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Strangely enough 
it has never been taken in Nova Scotia, although it undoubtedly 
occurs there, for I have observed it within two or three miles of 
the boundary line when rambling over the meadows of the Petit- 
codiac river in New Brunswick, not far from the type locality. 
Since my discovery of the birds about ten years ago I have found 
them breeding at Tignish, Prince Edward island, where they were 
recorded as caudacutus long before subvirgatus was separated by 
Brewster, at Bathurst, N.B., and at Riviere du Loup, Que., on 
the*south shore of the St. Lawrence. They have also been found 
a few miles west of the last named place at Kamouraska by Dionne. 
West of this I have not found them, neither at L’Islet nor on the 
marshes between the city of Quebec and Ste. Anne de Beaupré. 
Consequently there appears to be a wide gap between the head- 
quarters of,this form and those of nelsont,—over one thousand miles. 
(Dwight in The Auk, Vol. XIII., p. 276.) 
BREEDING NoTEes.—This species is tolerably common on low 
islands in the St. John river, in York county, N.B. The spring 
migrants arrive in April, the first observed in 1903 was April 22nd, a 
