Voi. xnn 
1896 J 
Dwight, The Sharp-tailed Sparrows. 
277 
by numerous observers. The three races are very much alike in 
habits and their chief trait is secretiveness. True caudacutus may 
be found on salt marshes hiding successfully under the sheets of 
sea-weed and drift brought by the tide and left to dry on the 
banks of the ditches, or nimbly racing through the short grass 
and weeds peculiar to such localities. Their wheezy gasp of a 
song may be heard from tussock, stake or block of drift wood 
and on the least alarm, the birds vanish, generally preferring not 
to take wing. During the migration they are more reckless in 
exposing themselves and often cling to tall reeds or perch on 
them when pursued. They usually go in small bands associated 
with the other races and with Ammodramus mantimus , a species 
that is a bosom friend at all seasons. The nests are hidden in 
drift or protected by a tussock of grass. 
Of nelsoni little seems to be known. Mr. E. W. Nelson has a 
little to tell of their habits and even states that they “ utter a short 
unmusical song ” in the autumn (Nelson, Bull. Essex Inst., VII T 
1S77, 107). He found them abundant on the Calumet. Marshes, 
near Chicago, Illinois, and observed a few in June, probably breed- 
ins;. Hitherto no nest has been taken, although a correspondent 
writes that he secured one some years ago in this very locality. 
As he sold the nest and eggs, and has lost all the data, and I have 
been unable to trace the purchaser, I think it best to say no more 
about it and wait for an authentic set to be secured, before 
attempting a description. A brief account is given of this race by 
Goss (Birds of Kansas, 1891, 449) and he speaks of the song as 
“ a short weak unmusical twittering warble.” He observed two 
young in first plumage, of which no specimens have as yet been 
taken, so far as I know. 
Since my description of subvirgatusyizs published nine years ago 
I have had opportunity nearly every summer to study this bird and 
yet there is but little to add to my original observations. The 
birds are scattered rather abundantly in the breeding season over 
immense tracts of meadow land along the Petitcodiac River in New 
Brunswick. I have traced them for twenty miles and notice that 
they most frequent certain damp spots and utilize the narrow 
ditches as highways. These meadows are diked off from the tide, 
and are in no sense salt marshes where the tide creeps at will. A 
