30 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Nicaragua— Kio Escondido, September 2. Costa Kica— Bonilla, Au- 

 gust 28. Panama— Obaldia, September 15. Colombia — Gaira, Sep- 

 tember 11. 



Banding records. — Banding provides a hint as to the life-span of 

 the prothonotary warbler. One banded as an immature on June 16, 

 1940, in Convis township, Calhoun County, Mich., was color banded 

 when it returned to the same place in 1942. Subsequently it was iden- 

 tified by the colored band on May 14, 1944, and May 10, 1945. 



Casual records. — The prothonotary warbler was reported at Nassau, 

 Bahamas, on August 29, 1898. It has been twice reported at Bermuda : 

 one shot from a flock in the fall of 1874, and another specimen collected 

 in November 1903. A single bird was observed at Mammoth Hot 

 Springs, Yellowstone Park, Wyo., on September 10, 1931. There are 

 two records for Arizona. On May 1, 1884, a specimen was taken near 

 Tucson at an altitude of 2,300 feet, the highest record of the species 

 in the United States. Another specimen was taken September 8, 

 1924, at Cave Creek, 4 miles northeast of Paradise in the Chiricahua 

 Mountains. 



Egg dates. Florida : 8 records, April 18 to May 9 ; 5 records, April 

 28 to 30. 



Illinois : 79 records, May 6 to June 21 ; 46, records. May 20 to June 4, 

 indicating the height of the season. 



Iowa : 56 records. May 15 to June 26 ; 36 records. May 27 to June 6 

 (Harris). 



LYMNOTHLYPIS SWAINSONII (Audubon) 



SWAINSON'S WARBLER 



contbibuted by edward von slebold dingle 



Plates 7-9 



HABITS 



"The history of our knowledge of Swainson's Warbler," write 

 Brooks and Legg (1942), "is a curious one, falling into definite pe- 

 riods." This bird was discovered in the spring of 1832 by the Rev. 

 John Bachman "near the banks of the Edisto River, South Carolina." 

 His discovery of the bird is described as follows : "I was first attracted 

 by the novelty of its notes, four or five in number, repeated at intervals 

 of five or six minutes apart. These notes were loud, clear, and more 

 like a whistle than a song. They resembled the sounds of some extraor- 

 dinary ventriloquist in such a degree, that I supposed the bird much 

 farther from me than it really was ; for after some trouble caused by 

 these fictitious notes, I perceived it near to me and soon shot it" 

 (Audubon, 1841). Dr. Bachman took five specimens; then, up to the 

 spring of 1884, Swainson's warbler remained almost a lost species, for 



