122 AMMODROMUS CAUDACUTUS. 



Here these birds found a home in the tall grass which grew very thickly and formed a 

 complete protection for them. Thus they are perfectly safe, having few if any enemies; 

 therefore they have increased to a surprising degree; in short they fairly swarm in count- 

 less numbers. Every square acre held its thousands, and every mile its hundreds of thous- 

 ands if not millions, of these little gray birds. At first I was not aware that there were so 

 many, for we entered the marshes during a low course of tides, but when the water rose 

 so high as to cover all but isolated patches of tall grass, forcin 5 the birds' to congregate 

 in them in large flocks, I saw how numerous they were. Usually they live concealed, but 

 at such times they retreat before the advancing flood, until they are obliged to perch on 

 the tops of the swaying grass where they crouch, patiently awaiting the subsiding of the 

 waters, when they seek their fastnesses and run about on the mud in search of small shells 

 and aquatic insects which form the principal part of their food. 



During the cold season they are quiet only occasionly uttering a chirp of alarm, but 

 when we arrived in Florida, in January, I heard them singing for the first time that season. 

 This lay was very familiar to me as I had frequently heard it at Cedar Keys, where I found 

 the Gray Shore Finch very common and about to breed as early as February. Then the 

 males would give their performance morning and evening, and throughout the day if the 

 weather were stormy. The song consisted of four notes, the first two were given abruptly 

 with a distinct articulation, while the last were more connected; the former being low and 

 quick, the latter prolonged and accented, and both together much resembled the carol of 

 the Red-winged Blackbird; in fact I at first thought the sound was produced by this bird 

 as the Finches were almost always concealed at the time. While giving this singular song 

 the bird becomes greatly excited, ruffling his feathers, spreading his tail, and drooping his 

 wings, while the head is bowed forward when the last syllable is uttered as if it cost him 

 a very great effort. This somewhat rude lay is evidently quite attractive to the female for 

 she is always near the spot, and the male often pauses in order to pursue her through the 

 grass. 



Besides the notes I have described the Gray Shore Finch utters a low twittering song 

 while hovering in air a few feet above the grass. It is a singular fact that these birds 

 were about to lay so early in the season at Cedar Keys,for they do not nest in the Carolinas 

 until the first of June which is but a little earlier than the breeding time in Connecticut. 

 The nest is placed either on the ground or fastened to grass stalks or stems of low bushes. 

 They arrive on the marshes of the more northern sections during the last of April and leave 

 before the ground freezes, but they are constantly resident at least as far north as North 

 Carolina. 



AMMODROMUS CAUDACUTUS. 



Sharp-tailed Finch. 

 Ammodromus caudaculus Sw. , Birds II, 1837, 289. 



DESCRIPTION. 



SP. Cn. Form, slender. Size, small. Tongue, thin and horny, provided with a tuft oflong, coarse, terminal, hair- 

 like fibers. Sternum, stout, with the keel somewhat higher than one third the length of the coracoids, which arc shorter 

 than the top of the keel. 



