FINCHES. 197 



a. About six inches long. Tail-feathers, narrow and 

 pointed, as also in caudacutus. Superciliary line f i om biU to 

 eye, and edge of the wing, yellow. Upper parts, and side- 

 shading below, brown or gray, olive-tinted, the former more or 

 less streaked. Under parts, white ; breast, tinted with brown, 

 and faintly or obsoletely streaked. Wings and tail, plain, 

 scarcely mai-ked. Side-markings on the head, vague. 



6. " The nest is usually placed in a tussock of grass, in 

 the fresh-water marshes, or on the sea-shore beyond the reach 

 of high tide." The eggs measure about .80X-5T of an inch, 

 and are white, gray-tinged, thickly, finely, and most often 

 evenly marked with brown, which is sometimes confluent or 

 predominant at the crown. 



c. I regret that I know nothing of the habits of the Sea- 

 side Finches, and that I cannot add to what has appeared in the 

 various meagre accounts of these birds already published. Dr. 

 Cones considered this species abundant on the coast of New 

 Hampshire, but " Mr. Brewster .... has looked for it in 

 vain at Eye Beach." Mr. Maynard doubts the occurrence of 

 these birds on the coast of Massachusetts, but, says Mr. Allen, 

 in his " Notes on the Rarer Birds of Massachusetts," " they 

 were formerly known to breed in the Chelsea marshes, and 

 probably do still." Wilson speaks of the Sea-side Finch as 

 " keeping almost continually within the boundaries of tide- 

 water," and adds that " amidst the recesses of these wet sea 

 marshes it seeks the rankest growth of grass and sea-weed, 

 and climbs along the stalks of the rushes with as much dex- 

 terity as it runs along the ground, which is rather a singular 

 circumstance, most of our climbers being rather awkward at 

 running." '''^ 



d. Their notes are said to be a chirp, and a song, hardly 

 worthy of the name, which is somewhat like that of the 

 Yellow-wiuged Sparrow. 



B. CAUDACUTUS. Sharp-tailed Finch. A siimmer resi- 

 dent in Massachusetts, but rare, being chiefly confined to a 

 few marshes.* 



at Rye Beach, in the fall of 1860, hav- " Vol. W, p. 68. 



ing- been Sharp-tailed Finches." {New * A very common, but somewhat 



England Bird Life, I, p. 251.) — W. B. local summer resident of the entire 



