108 

 SHARP-TAILED FINCH. 



4-Ammodramus catjdacutus, Lath. 

 PLATE CLXXIV.— Male, Female, and Nest. 



This species and the Jlmmodramus maritimus spend the winter among 

 the salt marshes of South Carolina, where I have observed thousands of both 

 late in December, and so numerous are they, that I have seen more than 

 forty of the latter killed at one shot. At that season, the neighbourhood of 

 Charleston seems to be peculiarly suited to their habits, and there they are 

 found in great abundance along the mouths of all the streams that flow into 

 the Atlantic. When the tide is out, they resort to the sedgy marshes, but 

 on the approach of the returning waters, they take wing and alight along 

 the shores and on the artificial banks formed for the protection of the rice 

 fields. 



The flight of this species is so different from that of any other Finch, that 

 one can easily know them at first sight, if he only observes that when flying 

 from one spot to another, they carry the tail very low. During winter, both 

 species are provided with an extra quantity of feathers on the rump. This 

 circumstance has not a little surprised me, when I found them residing in a 

 climate where the Blue Heron {Jlrdea caerulea) also is now and then to be 

 seen in the young state during winter. I am indeed of opinion that most 

 birds of this species and of the other remain here the whole year, and that 

 if some go farther south, they must be the weaker and younger birds, whose 

 constitution is unable to bear the least degree of cold. 



These Finches keep so much about the water, that they walk upon the 

 floating weeds as unconcernedly as if on land, or on any drifting garbage 

 raised from the mud at high tides; they congregate and feed together, and 

 doubtless are constant companions until the spring, when these species sepa- 

 rate for the purpose of breeding. 



The Sharp-tailed Finch is rather silent, a single tweet being all that I have 

 heard it utter. In spring their attempts to sing can hardly be said to pro- 

 duce a series of notes that can be dignified by the name of song. They feed 

 on the smaller species of shell-fish, on shrimps, and aquatic insects or 

 Crustacea, as well as on the seeds of the grasses growing on the grounds 

 which they inhabit. 



Within a few years this species has extended its range towards the eastern 



