104 
SEA-SIDE FINCH. 
coast, whence it pours forth with much emphasis the few notes of which its 
song is composed. When one approaches it, it either seeks refuge amongst 
the grass, by descending along the stalks and blades of the weeds, or flies 
off to a short distance, with a continued flirting of its wings, then alights 
with a rapid descent, and runs off with great nimbleness. I am inclined 
to believe that it rears two broods in the season, as I have found birds of 
this species sitting on their eggs early in May, and again in the beginning 
of July. The nest is placed so close to the ground that one might suppose 
it partly sunk in it, although this is not actually the case. It is composed 
of coarse grasses externally, and is lined with finer kinds, but exhibits little 
regularity in its structure. The eggs are from four to six, of an elongated 
oval form, greyish-white, freckled with brown all over. The male and the 
female sit alternately, and will not fly off at the sight of man, unless he 
attempts to catch them on the nest, when they skulk off as if badly wounded. 
Many nests may be found in the space of a few acres of these marshes, 
where the land is most elevated, and where small shrubs are seen. They 
select these spots, because they are not liable to be overflowed by high 
floods, and because there are accumulated about them drifted sand, masses 
of sea-weed, and other castings of the sea, among which they find much 
food of the kind which they seem to prefer. This consists of marine 
insects, small crabs and snails, as well as the green sand beetle, portions of 
all of which I have found in their stomach. 
It is very difficult to shoot them unless when they are on wing, as their 
movements while they run up and down the weeds are extremely rapid ; but 
their flight is so direct and level, that a good marksman can easily kill them 
before they alight amongst the grass again. After the young are well grown, 
the whole of these birds betake themselves to the ditches or sluices by which 
the salt-marshes are intersected, fly along them, and there find abundant 
food. They enter the larger holes of crabs, go into every crack and crevice 
of the drying mud, and are then more difficult to be approached, as the 
edges of these ditches are usually overgrown with taller and ranker sedges. 
Having one day shot a number of these birds, merely for the sake of prac- 
tice, I had them made into a pie, which, however, could not be eaten, on 
account of its fishy savour. 
The rose on which I have drawn these birds is found so near the sea, on 
rather higher lands than the marshes, that I thought it as fit as any other 
plant for the purpose, more especially as the Finches, when very high tides 
overflow the marshes, take refuge in these higher grounds. It is sweetly 
scented, and blooms from May to August. I have never met with it else- 
where than on the small sea islands and along the coasts, where it grows 
in loose sandy soil. 
