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.

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 declinate; 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 7¼; bill along the back 4½/12, along the edge 9½/12; tarsus 9/12.

Adult Female. Plate CXLIX. Fig. 2.

The female is coloured like the male, but the tints are a little fainter.

This species is allied in form and habits to the Sea-side Finch, Fringilla maritima, with which, however, it cannot possibly be confounded by any person possessing the least observation. The description of that species in my first volume being defective in several particulars, I here subjoin a more accurate account of its colouring and dimensions taken from a number of specimens.

Bill dark brown above, paler on the sides; the lower mandible bluish-grey, but in some individuals dusky. Iris hazel. Feet and claws greyish-blue, tinged with 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 dark brown tinged with grey, some of the feathers edged with greyish-white. Primary quills wood-brown, secondary dark brown edged with reddish-brown; the secondary and smaller coverts principally of the latter colour; the edge of the wing yellow. Tail-feathers wood-brown, with a central line of blackish-brown, excepting the lateral, which are plain and paler. A broad yellowish-brown streak from the base of the bill over the eye, but not extending beyond it. Throat and fore neck greyish-white, with a streak of bluish-grey on each side. Breast and sides dull greyish-white, tinged with yellowish-red, and streaked with dusky; the middle of the breast and the abdomen greyish-white; under tail-coverts pale yellowish-brown, streaked with dusky.

Length 6¼ inches, extent of wings 8; bill along the back 5/12, along the edge 7/12; tarsus 10/12.

Fringilla maritima is a much larger bird than F. caudacuta; the bill is proportionally more elongated; instead of the broad yellowish-red band over the eye, it has a narrow and much shorter one of a duller tint; the band of the same colour beneath the eye is wanting, and the under parts are differently coloured and much duller. The third and fourth quills are longest in F. maritima, the second and third in F. caudacuta, while in the former the first is much shorter, and in the latter very little.

Another species of Finch, belonging to the same group, and which, like F. maritima and F. caudacuta, is found abundantly in the salt marshes of the Carolinas, has been discovered by my most worthy friend the Rev. John Bachman of Charleston, who has presented me with a dozen specimens of it. With his approval, I have named it after a gentleman who, besides being my friend, is possessed, not only of a technical, but also of a practical knowledge of ornithology, and of whom I may safely say, that he is unquestionably the best portrayer of the feathered race that I know. It was my intention to have had the figures of this newly discovered species, which were drawn at Charleston by my son John Woodhouse, engraved for the second volume of "The Birds of America;" but the drawing did not reach London in time. The plate, however, is finished, and will appear in the fourth and last volume of that work. In the mean time, I subjoin a brief description.