a WARHIJiR SOXCtS. 



the same ringing ecstac\' of joy. The song seems to swing 

 once round a great circle with incredible swiftness but perfect 

 ease, ending in a bubbling diuiiducndo as the performer lightly 

 touches the perch or ground with half rigid wings held high. 

 The song is a flight song, usually occupying less than half a 

 minute, but jixicked with the intense life of the bird. I have 

 seen the Oven-bird suddenly vault into the air, mounting to 

 the tree tops on quivering wings, then dart back and forth in 

 a zigzag course swift as an arrow% and finally burst into a song 

 as he floated gently down. There is some difference in the 

 passion songs of the three species, which seems to be in the use 

 of some notes of the ordinary song at the close, rareh^ at the 

 beginning. Sometimes the Oven-bird closes his passion song 

 with a burst of the perfect call song. 



It seems hardly fair to say that the songs of the Water- 

 Thrushes are thrush-like, since there is almost nothing of the 

 true thrush timbre to their songs. On the contrary, a careful 

 analysis disclo.ses, rather, a true Warbler timbre, olxscured 

 as it is. 



Swainson's Warbler. Hclinaia sicaiusonii. <)8S. 



Mr. O. Widmann, who has probably given the breeding 

 song of this Warbler more careful study than any other per- 

 son, says of it : "It begins like the Water-Thrush and closes 

 like the I^ouisiana Water-thrush." Mr. Wm. Brewster de- 

 scribes the song as "A series of clear ringing whistles, the first 

 four uttered rather slowly and on the same key, the remaining 

 five or six more rapidly and in a descending scale. ' ' He also 

 says that in general effect it resembles the song of Water- 

 Thrush. The Warbler is not a regular singer, according to 

 Mr. Widmann, but seems to wait for an inspiration, and when 

 it comes he must needs deliver his message. 



I can find nothing definite concerning the song period, nor 

 as to whether there may be a renewal in the fall. 



The haunts of this bird are the va.st swamp tracts of the 

 southern states, as far north at least as the southern-most 

 counties of eastern Missouri, where Mr. Widmann found it 

 nesting. It apparently ranges to south-western Indiana and 

 west to Texas. 



