SHARP-TAILED FINCH. 109 



portions of the Union, as far as the vicinity of Boston, perhaps farther. I 

 doubt, however, that they ever reach the State of Maine and the British 

 provinces, chiefly because the shores of those countries are rocky, and 

 because very few salt marshes are to be met with there. None were seen 

 by me in Newfoundland, Labrador, or the intervening islands. 



The young birds of this species are considerably lighter in the tints of 

 their plumage, during winter, than their parents. Some shot on the 11th of 

 December, in the neighbourhood of Charleston in South Carolina, were so 

 pale as almost to tempt one to pronounce them of a different species. At 

 that period, the mornings were very cold, the ground being covered with a 

 thick white frost. So very intent are they on visiting the interior of the 

 broadest salt-marshes, that on returning, when the tide declined, to the same 

 banks where we had seen so many at the time of flowing, we could scarcely 

 find an individual. They are, however, less addicted to search into the 

 muddy recesses along the creeks and bayous than the Sea-side Finches. 



The nest is placed on the ground, as represented in my plate, at the 

 distance of a few feet from high-water mark, and generally in a place resem- 

 bling a portion of a newly mown meadow. A slight hollow is scraped, in 

 which are placed the delicate grasses forming the nest, disposed rather loosely 

 in a circular form. The eggs are from four to six, rather small, dull white, 

 sprinkled with light brown dots, more numerous towards the greater end. 

 About Cape May and Great Egg Harbour, two broods are usually raised in 

 a season; but from the immense numbers seen in autumn, when they begin 

 to congregate, I am inclined to believe that in many instances they have 

 three broods in the same year, especially in South Carolina and Georgia. I 

 saw none of these birds on the eastern coast of the Floridas. They are most 

 easily shot on the wing, for while among the sedges and tall grasses, they 

 move with great celerity, gliding from one blade to another, or suddenly 

 throwing themselves amid the thickest parts of the weeds, where it is im- 

 possible to see them. 



According to my friend Dr. T. M. Brewer, "this species is not rare 

 among the high grass upon Chelsea Beach, near Boston, in the summer, 

 where it no doubt breeds. It runs with wonderful speed, and is unwilling 

 to take wing until almost trodden upon." 



Breeds from Texas along the coast to Massachusetts. Never in the 

 interior. Resident in the Southern States. Very abundant. 



Sharp-tailed Finch, Fringilla caudacuta, Wils. Amer. Orn.,voI. iv. p. 70. 

 Fringilla caudacuta, Bonap. Syn., p. 110. 

 Shore Finch, Fringilla littoralis, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 504. 



Sharp-tailed Finch, Fringilla caudacuta, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 281; vol. v. p. 499. 

 Vol. III. 18 



