36 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Brewster (1885a) gives an admirable portrayal: 



His gait is distinctly a walk, his motions gliding and graceful. Upon alighting 

 in the branches, after being flushed from the ground, he assumes a statuesque 

 attitude, like that of a startled Thrush. While singing he takes an easier pos- 

 ture, but rarely moves on his perch. If desirous of changing his position be 

 flies from branch to branch instead of hopping through the twigs in the manner 

 of most Warblers. Under the influence of excitement or jealousy he sometimes 

 jets his tail, droops his wangs, and raises the feathers of the crown in a loose 

 crest, but the tail is never jerked like that of a Oeothlirpis, or wagged like that 

 of a Siurus. On the contrary, his movements are all deliberate and composed, 

 his disposition sedentary and phlegmatic. 



Voice. — The bird student who hears the song of Swainson's warbler 

 as he sings in his wooded retreat is fortunate, for it is one of the out- 

 standing warbler songs and, once heard, leaves a lasting impression 

 upon the listener. At a distance it bears much resemblance to the 

 songs of the hoooded warbler and the Louisiana waterthrush. Close 

 up, however, the appealing quality, lacking in the other two, impresses 

 the listener strongly. The song has, in the majority of individuals, 

 a highly ventriloquial effect, but the writer has listened to birds whose 

 notes did not in the slightest degree possess this quality. 



The song varies in length and number of notes but can be sepa- 

 rated into two distinct parts; the first few notes are uttered rather 

 slowly, the last ones more rapidly and on a descending scale. The 

 second part closely follows the first, with no apparent separation. 

 Brooks and Legg (1942) write: "It might be translated as ivhee, 

 whee, tvhee, whip-poor-will, the first two (or three) introductory 

 notes on an even pitch, the last whee a half-tone lower, and the slurred 

 phrase with will separated into two syllables, and accented on the 

 whip and on the W7^-part of the will. The last phrase sounded at times 

 remarkably like one of the songs of the White-eyed Vireo." 



When the singer begins his performance, the bill is pointed directly 

 up, and he seems entirely unconscious of anything but his own musical 

 efforts. "During his intervals of silence," says N. C. Brown (1878), 

 "he remains motionless, with plumage ruffled, as if completely lost in 

 musical reverie." Brewster (1885a) adds: 



It is very loud, very rich, very beautiful, while it has an indescribably tender 

 quality that thrills the senses after the sound has ceased. * * * Although 

 a rarely fervent and ecstatic songster, our litle friend is also a fitful and uncer- 

 tain one. You may wait for hours near his retreat, even in early morning, or 

 late afternoon, without hearing a note. But when the inspiration comes he 

 floods the woods with music, one song often following another so quickly that 

 there is scarce a pause for breath between. In this manner I have known him 

 to sing for fully twenty minutes, although ordinarily the entire performance 

 occupies less than half that time. Such outbursts may occur at almost any hour, 

 even at noontide, and I have heard them in the gloomiest weather, when the 

 woods were shrouded in mist and rain. 



