296 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



This little mouselike sparrow might occasionally be found in New 

 York if it were not so secretive in habits. When flushed, it proceeds with 

 a weak, rail-like flight for a few feet, or a few rods, over the tops of the 

 sedges, and drops again into the grass, whence it is almost impossible to 

 raise it a second time. It frequents a denser cover than the Nelson and 

 Acadian sparrows and, consequently, is more difficult to procure. 



Passerherbulus caudacutus (Gmelin) 

 Sharp-tailed Sparrow 



Plate 81 



Oriolus caudacutus Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1788. 1:394 



Ammodramus caudacutus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 164, fig. 154 

 Passerherbulus caudacutus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 258. 

 No. S49 



catidaciitus, Lat., cauda, tail, and acutus, sharp 



Description. Tail rounded; feathers sharp pointed; upper parts 

 olivaceous tinged more or less, especially on the side of the neck, with 

 grayish; the back and tertials streaked with white or bufly white; top of 

 the head dark brown with a very indistinct grayish median stripe; super- 

 ciliary and malar stripes rich buff, the latter broadening beneath the auricu- 

 lars and bending upward behind them, but inostly separated from the 

 superciliary stripe by a postocular blackish line; auriculars gray; abdomen 

 white; breast and sides strongly tinged with buff and distinctly streaked with 

 blackish. 



Length 5.40-5.85 inches; extent 7.5; wing 2.24-2.36; exposed bill 

 .46-.50; depth of bill .23; tail 1.9-2; tarsus .85. 



Distribution. This subspecies inhabits the salt marshes of the Atlantic 

 coast from Massachusetts to Virginia; winters from New Jersey, and rarely 

 from Massachusetts and New York, to Florida. It is common on the 

 marshes of Staten Island and Long Island throughout the summer, arriving 

 from April 18 to 29, sometimes as late as May 8, and the majority depart 

 from the 17th of October to the 2d of November. A few remain each 

 year throughout the winter on the salt marshes. This sparrow also ascends 

 the Hudson river as far as Piermont and occasionally to Newburgh. 



Habits. " It runs about among the reeds and grasses with the 



