BIRDS OF NEW YORK 299 



recorded from Penn Yan, October 7, 1896 (Burtch, Auk, 14: 93); Ithaca, 

 October i-io, 1897, October 10, 1899, September 26, 1900, October 8, 

 1906, by L. A. Fuertes; from Shelter Island, October 7, 1901 (Braislin 

 " Birds of Long Island," page 83); the lower Hudson valley, September 

 25 to October 10 (A. K. Fisher, Auk, 2: 306). 



Passerherbulus maritimus maritimus (Wilson) 

 Seaside Sparrow 



Plate 81 



Fringilla mar it im a Wilson. Amer. Om. 1811. 4:68. pi. 34, fig. 2 

 Ammodramus maritimus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 163, fig. 153 

 Passerherbulus maritimus maritimus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 

 1910. p. 259. No. 5SO 



maritimus, Lat., maritime, of the seaside 



Description. Olive grayish, mofe tinged with olive brown on the 

 back and faintly streaked with grayish; crown olive on the side, grayish 

 in the middle, producing three dinily defined broad stripes; a supraloral 

 stripe of yellow passing to grayish white above the eye and giving way 

 to a dim grayish olive stripe above the auriculars; auricular s and submalar 

 streaks dusky; malar streak, throat and abdomen white, dimly tinged with 

 bufify on the breast and sides (buffy absent in the breeding plumage); 

 breast and sides indistinctly streaked with grayish; bend of the wing yellow. 

 Length 6-6.5 inches; wing 2.5; tail 2.2; exposed culmen .52-.58; depth 

 of bill .29; tarsus .95. 



Distribution. This species inhabits the Atlantic seacoast from southern 

 Massachusetts to Virginia, and winters from Virginia to Georgia. As a 

 New York species it is confined to the salt and brackish marshes of Staten 

 Island, Long Island and the lower Hudson river, as far up as Piermont. It 

 is abtmdant on the salt marshes as a summer resident, arriving from April 

 20 to May ID, and departing from October 20 to 30. A few individuals 

 remain through the winter with the Sharp-tailed sparrows and other species 

 which frequent the tide- washed fiats. 



Haunts and habits. It is rarely seen far from the cover of the rank 

 grasses which cover its chosen habitat. Its call note is a squeaky " cheep," 

 and it has a chippering song of no great melody, uttered from the top of 



