part i

. p. 406.

Adult Male. Plate CXLVIII. Fig. 1.

Bill of ordinary length, nearly straight, broader than deep at the base, tapering, compressed toward the acute tip. Nostrils basal, oval, exposed. Head of ordinary size, neck short, body rather full. Feet of ordinary length, slender; tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with a few long scutella, sharp behind; toes free, scutellate above; claws arched, much compressed, acute.

Plumage soft and blended, slightly glossed. Wings of ordinary length, the first quill longest. Tail longish, slightly emarginate, the feathers pointed.

Bill black above. Iris dark-brown. Legs flesh-coloured. The general colour of the plumage above is a rich olive-green, the quills and tail-feathers margined with paler; at the base of the primary quills a white spot, part of which is apparent beyond the primary coverts. A yellowish-white line over the eye, and a spot of the same beneath it. Cheeks and sides of the neck olivaceous. The under parts ochre-yellow, tinged with brown below the wings.

Length 5½ inches, extent of wings 7½; bill along the ridge 4/12, along the edge ½; tarsus ¾.

Adult Female. Plate CXLVIII. Fig. 2.

The Female resembles the male, but is paler in its tints.

HOBBLE BUSH.

VIBURNUM LANTANOIDES, _Mich._ Fl. Amer. vol. i. p. 179. _Pursh_, Fl. Amer. Sept. vol. i. p. 202.—PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA, _Linn._

This species, which grows in the woods, from Canada to Virginia, is characterized by its large suborbicular, subcordate, unequally serrate, acute leaves, its dense cymes, and ovate berries, which are at first red, but ultimately black.

THE SHARP-TAILED FINCH.

_FRINGILLA CAUDACUTA_, WILS.

PLATE CXLIX. MALE, FEMALE, AND NEST.

This species and the _Fringilla maritima_ spend the winter among the salt marshes of South Carolina, where I have observed thousands of both late in December, and so numerous are they, that I have seen more than forty of the latter killed at one shot. At that season, the neighbourhood of Charleston seems to be peculiarly suited to their habits, and there they are found in great abundance along the mouths of all the streams that flow into the Atlantic. When the tide is out, they resort to the sedgy marshes, but on the approach of the returning waters, they take wing and alight along the shores and on the artificial banks formed for the protection of the rice fields.

The flight of this species is so different from that of any other finch, that one can easily know them at first sight, if he only observes that when flying from one spot to another, they carry the tail very low. During winter, both species are provided with an extra quantity of feathers on the rump. This circumstance has not a little surprised me, when I found them residing in a climate where the Blue Heron (_Ardea cærulea_) also is now and then to be seen in the young state during winter. I am indeed of opinion that most birds of this species and of the other remain here the whole year, and that if some go farther south, they must be the weaker and younger birds, whose constitution is unable to bear the least degree of cold.

These Finches keep so much about the water, that they walk upon the floating weeds as unconcernedly as if on land, or on any drifting garbage raised from the mud at high tides; they congregate and feed together, and doubtless are constant companions until the spring, when these species separate for the purpose of breeding.

The Sharp-tailed Finch is rather silent, a single _tweet_ being all that I have heard it utter. In spring their attempts to sing can hardly be said to produce a series of notes that can be dignified by the name of song. They feed on the smaller species of shell-fish, on shrimps, and aquatic insects 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 suddenly throwing themselves amid the thickest parts of the weeds, where it is impossible to see them.

FRINGILLA CAUDACUTA, _Ch. Bonaparte_, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 110.

SHARP-TAILED FINCH, FRINGILLA CAUDACUTA, _Wils._ Amer. Ornith. vol. iv. pl. 70. fig. 3.

SHORE FINCH, FRINGILLA LITTORALIS, _Nuttall_, Manual,