SHARP-TAILED FINCH.
sects 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 portions of the Union, as far as the vicinity of Boston, perhaps
farther. I doubt, however, that they ever reach the State of Maine and
the British provinces, chiefly because the shores of those countries are
rocky, and because very few salt marshes are to be met with there.
None were seen by me in Newfoundland, Labrador, or the intervening
islands.
The young birds of this species are considerably lighter in the tints
of their plumage, during winter, than their parents. Some shot on the
11th of December, in the neighbourhood of Charleston in South Carolina,
were so pale as almost to tempt one to pronounce them of a different
species. At that period, the mornings were very cold, the ground being
covered with a thick white frost. So very intent are they on visiting the
interior of the broadest salt-marshes, that on returning, when the tide declined,
to the same banks where we had seen so many at the time of flowing,
we could scarcely find an individual. They are, however, less addicted
to search into the muddy recesses along the creeks and bayous than
the Sea-side Finches.
The nest is placed on the ground, as represented in my plate, at the
distance of a few feet from high-water mark, and generally in a place resembling
a portion of a newly mown meadow. A slight hollow is scraped,
in which are placed the delicate grasses forming the nest, disposed rather
loosely in a circular form. The eggs are from four to six, rather small,
dull white, sprinkled with light brown dots, more numerous towards the
greater end. About Cape May and Great Egg Harbour, two broods are
usually raised in a season; but from the immense numbers seen in
autumn, when they begin to congregate, I am inclined to believe that in
many instances they have three broods in the same year, especially in
South Carolina and Georgia. I saw none of these birds on the eastern
coast of the Floridas. They are most easily shot on the wing, for while
among the sedges and tall grasses, they move with great celerity, gliding
from one blade to another, or suddeidy throwing themselves amid the
thickest parts of the weeds, where it is impossible to see them.
SHARP-TAILED FINCH. 283
FRINGILLA CAUDACUTA, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 110.
SHARP-TAILED FINCH, FRINGILLA CAUDACUTA, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iv. pi. 70.
fig. 3.
SHORE FINCH, FRINGILLA LITTORALIS, Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 504.
Adult Male. Plate CXLIX. Fig. 1.
Bill shortish, strong, conical, acute; upper mandible of the same
breadth as the lower, convex on the sides, the tip acute and slightly decimate
; lower mandible convex on the back and sides, and both involute
on the sharp edges. Nostrils basal, roundish, open, partially concealed
by the feathers. Head rather large, neck short, body rather robust.
Legs of moderate length, slender; tarsus compressed, anteriorly scutellate,
sharp behind ; toes rather large, free, scutellate above, the lateral
nearly equal, the hind toe strong; claws arched, much compressed,
longish, acute, that of the hind toe larger.
Plumage ordinary, soft and blended beneath. Wings short and much
curved; the second and third primaries longest and equal, the fourth
scarcely shorter, the first and fifth about equal. Tail of ordinary length,
graduated, slender, the feathers narrow and pointed.
Bill brownish-black above, the sides of the upper mandible yellow,
the lower mandible light bluish-grey. Iris hazel. Feet pale brown.
Crown of the head bluish-grey in the middle, deep brown at the sides,
the feathers black along the centre. Hind neck dull grey, tinged with
brown ; back brown, tinged with grey, some of the feathers marked with
black and edged with greyish-white. Primary quills wood-brown, secondary
dark brown, edged with reddish-brown; the secondary and small
coverts principally of the latter colour. Tail-feathers wood-brown, with
a central line of blackish-brown, excepting the lateral, which are plain and
paler. A broad band of light yellowish-red from the base of the mandible
over the eye; ear-coverts grey ; fore neck pale yellowish-red, the
throat paler and unspotted, the rest streaked with dusky. The sides of
the same tint, but paler, and similarly streaked ; the middle of the breast
and the abdomen greyish white ; under tail-coverts pale yellowish-red.
Length 5 inches, extent of wings 7£ ; bill along the back J£, along the
edge \ \ ; tarsus ft.