_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.
5-1/2.
_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.
The three Sharp-tails may be distinguished chiefly by the color and
markings of the breast. In the Sharp-tail these are _pale_ buff
_distinctly_ streaked with blackish. In Nelson's they are _deep_ buff
lightly if at all streaked. In the Acadian they are cream-buff
indistinctly streaked with _grayish_. The Sharp-tail may be known from
the other two by its distinct black marks below, but the other two
cannot certainly be distinguished from each other in life where both may
be expected to occur.