1482 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part s 



limited variety of twittering notes." F. Schuyler Mathews (1904) 

 calls the song a monotonic chip repeated in rapid succession with 

 "a very perceptible accelerando" Aretas A. Saunders (1935) says 

 "Some songs are double; that is, notes are sung on two pitches at 

 once, the higher notes being slow and sweet in quality, and the lower 

 notes faster and somewhat guttural. There are generally three 

 notes of the lower part to one of the upper. The two notes are 

 harmonious and usually about a third apart in pitch." He states 

 further {in Roberts, 1936) "If one listens carefully to a number of 

 these birds on their breeding grounds he will soon be likely to find 

 one that sings, "tolit lit lit lit" etc., and with it a lower "tururur 

 tururur tururur" about two or two and a half tones below the upper 

 notes. From a distance the higher note is usually the only one 

 audible, whereas near the bird only the low one can be heard, and at 

 a medium distance both are heard at once." This peculiar anatomy 

 of the swamp sparrow song lends itself to ventriloquial effects. 



The male sings in spring from a few special prominent perches on 

 its territory, with tail expanded and evidence of great effort apparent 

 over all its body. T. S. Roberts (1936) claims: "Occasionally the 

 Swamp Sparrow indulges in a flight song, when it rises a few feet in 

 the air and utters a brief, ecstatic jumble of notes surprisingly unlike 

 the usual simple, broken trill." However E. P. Bicknell (1884) 

 classes the species among those "with which aerial song-flight appears 

 to be only occasional or exceptional." 



The song of this species is one of the first to come from the swamps 

 on summer mornings, and it is often heard past midnight. Indeed 

 M. G. Brooks (1930) notes that "On moonlit nights this bird sings 

 as freely as in the daytime." G. M. Sutton writes me: "On June 24, 

 1946, I heard the first Swamp Sparrow song of the day (a full ringing 

 song) at 3:40 a.m., the second at 3:45, and so many immediately 

 thereafter that I felt sure the whole population must have been awake 

 by 3:50, despite the darkness. While spending the night of July 

 9-10, 1946, awake in a blind at a Whip-poor-will nest, I heard the 

 latest Swamp Sparrow song of the evening at 9:05 o'clock, fully five 

 minutes later than the last song of the veery. * * * In late summer 

 the songs were all delivered from well down in the cat-tails or shrub- 

 bery rather than from prominent song-perches." 



E. P. Bicknell (1885) gives the following account of late summer 

 and fall singing in the Riverdale, New York City area: 



The song of the Swamp Sparrow comes up from the swamps and marshes until 

 early August, then it becomes less frequent. Usually it ceases about the middle 

 of the month, sometimes a little before, but not unfrequently it continues later, 

 and I have heard songs even so late as early September. About a month of 

 silence now ensues; then the species comes again into voice. My record gives 

 dates for the recommencement of singing from September 11 (?) and 18, to 28. 

 The time of final cessation is carried into October — 15th and 17th are latest 



