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SHARP-TAILED FINCH. 
Ammodramus CAUDACUTUS, Lath. 
PLATE CLXXIY. — Male, Female, and Xest. 
This species and the Ammodramus maritimus spend the winter among 
the salt marshes of Soutli 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 neighbour- 
hood 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 protec- 
tion 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 ( Ardea ccerulea ) 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 
separate for the purpose of breeding. 
The Sharp-tailed Finch is rather silent, a single tweet being all that 1 
have heard it utter. In spring their attempts to sing can hardly be said 
to produce 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 
