CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 475 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



Two eggs taken at Long Lake, Manitoba, in June, 1894, by Mr, 

 W. Raine. 



549 • la. Acadian Sharp-tailed Pincli. 



Amnwdramus nelsoni subvirgatus (Dwight) Norton. 1897. 



Fairly common about the salt marshes at the mouths of the 

 streams emptying into Minas Basin, King's Co., N.S., from June 

 to October. {H. Tups.) Possibly occurs in Nova Scotia. {Downs.) 

 Several specimens taken in the vicinity of Hampton, N.B. 

 {Chamberlain^ A nest of this [species was taken near Baddeck, 

 Cape Breton Island, July, 26th, 1898 ; this species was not rare 

 along the shore of the bay east of Baddeck. {Macoun.) A few birds 

 in the salt marsh at Tignish, Prince Edward Island were the only 

 ones I could discover, although I searched in many other locali- 

 ties. {Dwight.) Taken at St. Denis de Kamouraska, south shore 

 of St. Lawrence, eastern Quebec ; breeding in some numbers. 

 {DionTu) A casual visitor at Ottawa, Ont. One shot in 1882, 

 identified by Dr. Coues. {Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. V.) 



This form is peculiar to the fresh and salt water marshes of the 

 Maritime Provinces of Canada, especially those bordering on the 

 Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Strangely enough 

 it has never been taken in Nova Scotia, although it undoubtedly 

 occurs there, for I have observed it within two or three miles of 

 the boundary line when rambling over the meadows of the Petit- 

 codiac River in New Brunswick, not far from the type locality. 

 Since my discovery of the birds about ten years ago I have found 

 them breeding at Tignish, Prince Edward Island, where they were 

 recorded as caudacutus long before [subvirgatus was separated by 

 Brewster, at Bathurst, N.B., and at Riviere du Loup, Quebec, on 

 the south shore of the St. Lawrence. They have also been found 

 a few miles west of the last named place at Kamouraska by 

 Dionne. West of this I have not found them, neither at L'Islet 

 nor on the marshes between the city of Quebec and Ste. Anne de 

 Beaupre. Consequently there appears to be a wide gap between 

 the headquarters of this form and those of nelsoni, — over one 

 thousand miles. {Dwight in The Auk, Vol. XIII., p. 276.) 



This species is tolerably common on low islands in the St. John 

 River, in York Co., N.B. The spring migrants arrive in April, 

 the first observed in 1903 was April 22nd, a week earlier than the 



