On the coast of New Jersey, where these birds are found in the greatest abundance, they have at least two broods in a season. Their nest is on the ground, in a small tussock of grass or sedges, but little removed from the reach of the tide, and is placed in a depression apparently excavated for the purpose. They are loosely made of soft and slender grasses, arranged in a circular form. The nest is large for the bird, spacious and deep, and is softly lined with finer and similar materials.
Their eggs, five or six in number, are of a somewhat rounded oval shape, having an average breadth of .59 of an inch, and vary in length from .78 to .70. Their ground-color is a light green, occasionally a dull white, with hardly a perceptible tinge of greenish, thickly sprinkled equally over the entire egg, with fine rusty-brown dots. These are of various sizes, but all fine. In a few the larger dots are confluent in a ring around the larger end; in others, the finer dots are so small as to be only distinguishable under a glass, concealing the ground-color, and giving to the egg an almost uniform rusty color. These eggs vary but little in shape, and are nearly equally rounded at either end, though never entirely so.
Ammodromus maritimus, Swainson.
SEASIDE BUNTING.
Fringilla maritima, Wilson, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 68, pl. xxxiv, f. 2.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, pl. xciii. Ammodromus maritimus, Sw. Zoöl. Jour. III, 1827, 328.—Bonap. List, 1838.—Ib. Consp. 1850, 482.—Aud. Synopsis, 1839, 110.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 103, pl. clxxii.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 454.—Samuels, 308. Fringilla (Ammodromus) maritima, Nutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 592. Fringilla macgillivrayi, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 285; IV, 1838, 394; V, 1839, 499, pl. ccclv. Ammodromus macgillivrayi, Bon. List, 1838.—Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 482.—Aud. Syn. 1839.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 106, pl. clxxiii. Fringilla (Ammodromus) macgillivrayi, Nuttall, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 593.
Sp. Char. Above olivaceous ashy-brown; nearly uniform, but with the centres of interscapular feathers darker and edged faintly with paler; very obsoletely, almost inappreciably streaked elsewhere, especially on the head, which has a faintly defined median stripe of purer ashy. Beneath white; the breast and sides and under tail-coverts with rather indistinct streaks of dark ashy-brown, tending to form a large spot in centre of breast; an ashy mandibular stripe continued into the ashy sides of neck, and cutting off and enclosing a white stripe above it. A spot of yellow anterior to eye, continued over it as an almost inappreciable grayish stripe. Edge of wing sulphur-yellow. Bill lead-color; feet dusky. Length about 6 inches; wing, 2.50. In autumn the breast and sides tinged with fulvous; the back with rufous.
Young birds (A. macgillivrayi?) have markings much more distinct, and closely resemble A. caudacuta, though larger. They will be most readily distinguished by the absence of the fulvous superciliary stripe.
Hab. Atlantic sea-coast of United States, northward to Long Island Sound.
The same seasonal differences in coloration are observable in this species as in A. caudacutus.
Habits. The Seaside Finch has very nearly the same distribution, habits, and manners of life, as the Sharp-tailed species, and the description of these in one would answer almost equally well for the other. There are, however, certain shades of difference in several respects to be observed.