FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 393 



While frequenting brackish or fresh-water marshes, where the grasses 

 grow more luxuriantly than in the haunts of its southern relative, it 

 prefers the more open spots or those where damp ditches make high- 

 ways of escape for it afoot. It is locally abundant, particularly in the 

 great marshes that border the Bay of Fundy, but so retiring that, save 

 for its little song, its presence might be easily overlooked. Swaying 

 on a tall stalk of meadow rue or squatting on a convenient fence, the 

 males may be found at all hours of the day repeating their song a few 

 times and then flying to some new perch or burying themselves in the 

 grass. Occasionally toward nightfall one will mount into the air and 

 with set wings float down, fairly gushing with song, a habit shared by 

 the ordinary Sharp-tail and by the Seaside Sparrow as well. 



With these birds they associate in autumn, and may be flushed one 

 or two at a time from the strips of grass or reeds that are left on the 

 salt marshes along the ditches after the hay has been cut. 



The song is a husky, gasping effort, not very loud, and executed 

 with a nod of the head. It is sung in less than a second, and resem- 

 bles ksh-sh-sh-oolp, the last syllable occupying one-fifth of the time 

 and rather musical compared with the harsh lisp that precedes it. They 

 also have a tchep of alarm, but it is the exception for them to show much 

 anxiety about their nests or young. The nest has never been taken. 



J. DWIGHT, JR. 



550. Passerherbulus maritimus maritimus (Wils.). SEASIDE 

 SPARROW. Ads. A yellow line before the eye and on the bend of the wing; 

 upperparts grayish olive-green; tail grayish brown, the outer webs of the 

 feathers margined with olive-greenish; a 

 dusky line from the base of the lower 

 mandible passes down the sides of the 

 throat ; breast more or less suffused with 

 buffy (wanting in summer specimens), 

 and indistinctly streaked with grayish; 

 throat and middle of the belly white; 

 sides grayish. L., 6'00; W,, 2'50; T., 

 2-20; B., '60. 



Range. Salt marshes of the Atlantic 

 coast. Breeds chiefly in Carolinian 



fauna from s. Mass, to Va.; winters FIG. 105. 'seaside Sparrow, 



from Va. to Ga. (Natural size.) 



Ossmmg, A. V. 



Nest, of coarse grasses and reed stalks, lined with grasses, on the ground. 

 Eggs, 3-4, white or bluish white, clouded or finely speckled with cinnamon- 

 brown, especially at the larger end, '80 x '63. Date, Northampton Co., Va., 

 May 18; Oyster Bay, N. Y., May 24. 



Like most marsh-loving birds, Seaside Sparrows are so consistent 

 in their choice of a home that it would be quite useless to look for them 

 anywhere but in a marsh, and that a salt one, generally within sound 

 or at least sight of the sea. The baymen call them 'Meadow Chippies/ 

 and often when Snipe and Plover shooting, I have drawn numbers to me 

 by simply squeaking. They tipped all the reeds about my blind, chirping 

 excitedly at the peculiar sound which aroused their curiosity. They pass 

 much of their time on the ground among the reeds and grasses, but 



