SWAINSON'S WARBLER 31 



according to Brewster (1885a) there is no record of more than eight 

 or nine birds being collected. Wayne, through collections and field 

 work near Charleston, opened a productive 25-year period in the 

 history of sioainsonii, in which many valuable contributions were made 

 by various observers. From 1910 to 1930 the name sioainsonii was 

 practically absent from the pages of current ornithological literature. 

 Brewster (1885a) has given us the best description of the bird's 

 haunts in the low country : 



The particular kind of swamp to wtiicli he is most partial is known in local 

 parlance as a "pine-land gall." It is usually a depression in the otherwise level 

 surface, down which winds a brook, in places flowing swiftly between well- 

 defined banks, in others divided into several sluggish channels or spreading 

 about in stagnant pools, margined by a dense growth of cane, and covered with 

 lily leaves or other aquatic vegetation. Its course through the open pine-lands 

 is sharply marked by a belt of hardwood trees nourished to grand proportions 

 by the rich soil and abundant moisture. Beneath, crumbling logs cumber the 

 ground, while an under-growth of dogwood (Cornus florid a), sassafras, viburnum, 

 etc., is interlaced and made well-nigh impenetrable by a net-work of grapevines 

 and greenbriar. These belts — river bottoms they are in miniature — rarely ex- 

 ceed a few rods in width ; they may extend miles in a nearly straight line. 



The writer has had a long acquaintance with Swainson's warbler in 

 the low country of Carolina. Except during September (fall migra- 

 tion) the birds were almost never seen out of sight of substantial 

 growths of cane, even when the nests were built in bushes, low trees, 

 or vines. This has been the experience of practically all observers 

 and, as Brooks and Legg (1942) remark, "an idee fixe among ornitholo- 

 gists" existed ; the familiar description of habitat by Brewster (1885a) 

 became a dictum : "Briefly, four things seem indispensible to his ex- 

 istence, viz., water, tangled thickets, patches of cane, and a rank 

 growth of semi-aquatic plants." 



Hence, the ornithological world received a surprise to learn that 

 sioainsonii was a summer resident and breeder in different localities 

 of high altitude in the Appalachian Chain. Although several ob- 

 servers have found the bird nesting beyond the limits of the Coastal 

 Plain, even in Piedmont territory, as La Prade (1922) did at 1,050 

 feet above sea level, it was E. A. Williams (1935) who first detected it 

 in a truly mountainous terrain. During two successive summers he 

 found birds near Tryon, N. C, "in open woods." 



Loomis (1887) was quite prophetic when, in recording a Swainson's 

 warbler from Chester, S. C, "in the heart of the Piedmont Region, one 

 hundred and fifty miles from the coast," he wrote : "It awakens the 

 mind to the possibility of an Up-Country habitat, yet awaiting dis- 

 covery, where the true centre of abundance will finally be located." 



The efforts of Brooks and Legg (1942) have shown Swainson's 

 warbler to be a locally common summer resident in south-central West 

 Virginia up to an elevation of 2,000 feet above sea level ; no positive 



