A buffy Sparrow with the underparts sharply streaked with black. L. 5¾.
Range. Salt marshes of the Atlantic coast; nests from Virginia to Massachusetts; winters from New Jersey to Florida.
Cambridge, formerly common S.R., but occurs no longer.
An abundant inhabitant of salt marshes. There is, or was, a colony on the Hudson River immediately south of the long pier from which Piermont takes its name, but with this exception I have never seen this Sparrow beyond the sound of the surf. It runs about through the thick marsh grasses taking wing only when hard pressed. Its song is short and insignificant. It nests on the ground, the 3-4 grayish white, finely speckled eggs being laid in late May or early June.
NELSON'S SHARP-TAILED SPARROW
Passerherbulus nelsoni nelsoni
Resembles the Sharp-tailed but is smaller and has the throat, breast and sides deeper, very slightly, if at all, streaked with blackish; the upperparts more broadly margined with whitish. L. 5½.
Range. Nests in the interior from South Dakota northward to Great Slave Lake; migrates south to Texas and southeast through New York and Massachusetts to North Carolina and Florida.
Washington, rare T.V., May-Sept. Ossining, tolerably common T.V., Sept. 28-Oct. 17. Cambridge, formerly uncommon T.V. Glen Ellyn, one record, Oct. 2, 1893. SE. Minn., uncommon T.V.
This is a fresh-water representative of the Sharp-tail which nests in the prairie sloughs of the interior and reaches the Atlantic coast during its migrations and in the winter. It resembles the Sharp-tail in habits and when on the coast, may be found associated with it.
The Acadian Sharp-tailed Sparrow (P. n. subvirgatus) is similar to the Sharp-tailed Sparrow but is paler above; the throat, breast and sides are washed with cream-buff and indistinctly streaked with ashy. It nests on the salt marshes of the Atlantic coast from Maine to Cape Breton and in Prince Edward Island; and winters from South Carolina to Florida. In general habits it resembles the two preceding.