The average temperature for July, compiled over a 34 year period at the Asbury Park weather station is 72.6°F. The average precipitation from May through August, acquired over the same length of time, is between 3.5 and 4.5 inches per month. In spring and summer the prevailing winds are from the south and southwest. Therefore, the south and west shores of the island are subject to greater inundations by water. The fact that the island is unprotected by neighboring islands from the open expanse of the bay on this side is also of importance in this respect. The north and east shores, on the lee side of the island, are guarded from the open bay by nearby land. The exposed southern shores, where there was open mud and sparse patches of cord-grass, were the preferred feeding areas of the Seaside Sparrows. Lack of exposed and open feeding areas may account for the absence of this species in areas that otherwise seem to fulfill the requirements of the species. Two major drift lines were present on the island: one within a few feet of the waterline consisted mostly of dead eel grass (Zostera marina), and the other, situated close to the cattail strip, contained a variety of flotsam (pl. 2, fig. a). FLORA The vegetation on the island consisted chiefly of smooth cord-grass (_Spartina alterniflora_), black grass (_Juncus gerardi_), cattail (_Typha_ sp.), and marsh-elder (_Iva frutescens_). Other plants identified on the area were: common reed grass (_Phragmites communis_) and slender grass wort (_Salicornia europea_). Black grass grows on the inner, dryer portions of the marsh, and cord-grass prefers the wetter portions, growing to the edge of the water. The marsh-elder bushes mostly are restricted to the mounds of earth dug from the ditches. Cattails, in general, grow in a narrow band paralleling, but back a few yards from, the shoreline. Areas of mixed black grass and cord-grass occurred. REPTILES Diamond-backed terrapins (_Malaclemys terrapin_) were the only reptiles recorded from the study island. Several were taken on land, but the majority were seen in the waters about the marsh. On June 27 a black snake (_Coluber constrictor_) was seen in a bushy area bordering a marsh on the mainland side of Barnegat Bay. A few Sharp-tailed Sparrows were seen in the same locality and a singing male (G. E. W. 559) with testes 14 x 8 mm. and a female (G. E. W. 558) with a brood patch were collected. MAMMALS Only two species of mammals, both abundant, were present on the study island: the meadow vole (_Microtus pennsylvanicus_) and the muskrat (_Ondatra zibethicus_). The muskrats dug burrows beneath the level of the water into the banks of the island, used the ditches as routes to the interior of the marsh and built some small houses, mostly from cattail stems.