
230 SEA-SIDE ORNITHOLOGY. 
and is hardly distinguishable in its habits from the sea-side 
sparrows. The Savannah Sparrow, though only occasionally 
found breeding so far to the south as Massachusetts, is evi- 
dently a sea-sider, preferring the open dunes in the vicinity 
of the sea, and feeding chiefly on the grass and other seeds 
found in these wild and uncultivated places. Among the 
islands on the eoast of Maine, as well as on the uplands bor- 
dering the sea-shore, it is a very abundant species. It nests 
in sunken places in the ground, often on the edges of cliffs, 
under cover of a projecting portion of the bank. In their 
habits they resemble the Song Sparrow, and their notes, 
though thinner and not so sweet, have many points of re- 
nent blanest 
Another land bird, as yet quite rare and but little known, 
the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher,* so far as observed, is a bird 
affecting the sea-side. In the low marshy woods near 
Halifax, on the islands of Grand Menan over the water's 
edge, and on the banks of the St. Croix, in New Brunswick, 
these flycatehers have been observed and their nests ob- 
tained. That it is not exclusively a bird of the sea-shore 
would appear from the fact that it has been also obtained at 
the same season on the western shore of Lake Michigan. If 
found during summer on any part of our coast this side of 
Eastport, is as yet not ascertained. 
The Belted Kingfisher, though chiefly an inland bird, and 
often found breeding in the interior, remote from any water, 
is still to be mentioned as one of the birds which, under favor- 
able circumstances, enlivens the sea-side with his presence, 
his curious piseatorial habits, and his loud and rattling notes. 
Leaving now the land forms that are characteristic of, or 
. are found near the sea-shore, we pass to those water birds 
that may still be regarded as belonging to the maritime por- 
. tions of New England. Of the Herons, five at least are 
| summer residents near our sea-coast, breed within the 
x Tune as is also the Z piri MM. A. Allen informs 
species of this genus. 



