SOUTHERN SWAMP SPARROW 1483 



dates; but often the song is not heard after the first part of the month. In this 

 supplementary season of song, singing is by no means general, and is usually 

 confined to the early morning hours. But the birds seem more ambitious in their 

 vocalism than earlier in the year. In the spring and summer the song is a simple 

 monotone; in the autum this is often varied, and extended with accessory notes. 

 A few preliminary chips, merging into a fine trill, introduce the run of notes which 

 constitutes the usual song, which now terminates with a few slower, somewhat 

 liquid tones. This seems to be the fullest attainment of the birds, and is often 

 only partially or imperfectly rendered. 



Behavior. — T. S. Roberts (1936) points out the swamp sparrow "is 

 more secretive in its habits than the Song Sparrow and is loath to 

 leave the concealment of its retreats. It climbs up and down the 

 coarse stems of the reeds and bushy shoots in a nimble, mouse-like 

 manner and, when alarmed, descends into the dense marsh grass, 

 runs rapidly away, and disappears for good and all. It rarely flies 

 from the nest but slips quietly off and silently creeps away, keeping 

 well under cover." The abrasive action of the coarse marsh grasses 

 and sedges in which it lives keep the birds' tail feathers continually 

 worn. 



It does much of its feeding by wading in shallow water like a sand- 

 piper and picking insects and seeds from the surface. These activities 

 are doubtless facilitated by its femur and tibiotarsus being proportion- 

 ately longer than those of the song sparrow. Though E. T. Seton 

 (1890) thought they showed great fear of getting wet, A. Allison 

 (1904) describes them "splashing through the water like little musk- 

 rats." S. D. Judd (1901) relates that a captive bird "showed an 

 aversion to picking up seeds from its seed cup, preferring to take them 

 from the surface of its drinking vessel." 



Except when migrating the swamp sparrow rarely flies more than 

 a few dozen yards at a time, and rarely rises more than a few feet 

 above the grass tops. In flight it pumps its tail rapidly up and down 

 in a characteristic manner. Yet E. L. Poole (1938) shows that its 

 wing-loading (ratio of wing area to body weight) of 4.30 square 

 centimeters per gram is appreciably greater than the 3.94 square 

 centimeters per gram in the larger congeneric song sparrow, which 

 should make it an appreciably better flier. 



Their behavior toward other species is little known. During fall 

 migration they are often found flocking with other sparrows in dry 

 fields. Yet on the wintering grounds in coastal Mississippi J. D. 

 Corrington (1922) reports they "did not associate with other birds." 

 William Brewster (1937) relates that a Lincoln's sparrow often drove 

 swamp sparrows from a feeding plot in May. 



While they do not trap as readily as some of their more granivorous 

 relatives, swamp sparrows are not overly shy about repeating at bands 

 ing stations. Over a 2-year period Marie A. Commons (1938) reports 

 banding 104 individuals, 40 of which repeated a total of 1G2 times. 



