122 
AMMODR OMUS CA UDA C UT US. 
Here these birds found a home in the tall grass which grew very thickly and formed a 
complete protection for them. Thus they are perfectly safe, having few if any enemies; 
therefore they have increased to a surprising degree; in short they fairly swarm in count¬ 
less numbers. Every square acre held its thousands, and every mile its hundreds of thous¬ 
ands if not millions, of these little gray birds. At first I was not aware that there were so 
many, for we entered the marshes during a low course of tides, but when the water rose 
so high as to cover all but isolated patches of tall grass, forcing the birds to congregate 
in them in large flocks, I saw how numerous they were. Usually they live concealed, but 
at such times they retreat before the advancing flood, until they are obliged to perch on 
the tops of the swaying grass where they crouch, patiently awaiting the subsiding of the 
waters, when they seek their fastnesses and run about on the mud in search of small shells 
and aquatic insects which form the principal part of their food. 
During the cold season they are quiet only occasionly uttering a chirp of alarm, but 
when we arrived in Florida, in January, I heard them singing for the first time that season. 
This lay was very familiar to me as I had frequently heard it at Cedar Keys, where I found 
the Gray Shore Finch very common and about to breed as early as February. Then the 
males w 7 ould give their performance morning and evening, and throughout the day if the 
weather were stormy. The song consisted of four notes, the first two were given abruptly 
with a distinct articulation, while the last were more connected; the former being low and 
quick, the latter prolonged and accented, and both together much resembled the carol of 
the Red-winged Blackbird; in fact I at first thought the sound was produced by this bird 
as the Finches were almost always concealed at the time. While giving this singular song 
the bird becomes greatly excited, ruffling his feathers, spreading his tail, and drooping his 
wings, while the head is bowed forward when the last syllable is uttered as if it cost him 
a very great effort. This somewhat rude lay is evidently quite attractive to the female for 
she is always near the spot, and the male often pauses in order to pursue her through the 
grass. 
Besides the notes I have described the Gray Shore Finch utters a low twittering song 
while hovering in air a few feet above the grass. It is a singular fact that these birds 
were about to lay so early in the season at Cedar Keys,for they do not nest in the Carolinas 
until the first of June which is but a little earlier than the breeding time in Connecticut. 
The nest is placed either on the ground or fastened to grass stalks or stems of low bushes. 
They arrive on the marshes of the more northern sections during the last of April and leave 
before the ground freezes, but they are constantly resident at least as far north as North 
Carolina. 
AMMODROMUS CAUDACUTUS. 
Sharp-tailed Finch. 
Arnmodromus caudacutus Sw., Birds II, 1837, 289. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Ch. Form, slender. Size, small. Tongue, thin and horny, provided with a tuft of long, coarse, terminal, hair¬ 
like fibers. Sternum, stout, with the keel somewhat higher than one third the length of the coracoids, which arc shorter 
than the top of the keel. 
