SHARP-TAILED SPARROW. 
SHORE FINCH. 
Ammodramus CAUDACUTUS. 
Char. Above, brownish gray tinged with olive ; crown darker, with 
median stripe of ashy gray and two stripes of black ; back streaked with 
black; stripes of buff above and below eyes meeting behind ear-coverts; 
wings edged with yellow; tail-feathers narrow, with acutely pointed tips; 
below, dull white, breast and sides tinged with buff and streaked with 
black. Length about 51 ^ inches. 
A'est. In a salt-marsh or wet meadow, amid a cluster of reeds or tuft 
of sedges, to the stems of which it is sometimes fastened ; a somewhat 
bulky structure of grass and weed-stems, lined with fine grass. 
Eggs. 4-5; dufl white or tinged with buff or green, thickly spotted 
with brown and lilac; 0.75 X 0.55. 
The Shore Finch is an inhabitant of the low islands and 
marshy sea-coasts from Massachusetts to Texas, living on 
small shrimps, marine insects, and probably grass seeds, mov- 
ing through the rank herbage nearly with the same agility and 
timidity as a Swamp Sparrow, to which in structure of the 
feet and stoutness of the bill it bears considerable affinity. 
