(58 Brewster o>i Swainson's Warbler. [January 



••I was impressed by the absorbed manner in which this bird 

 sings. Sitting quietly upon a limb of some small tree, he sud- 

 denly throws back his head and pours forth his notes with the 

 utmost fervor and abandon. During his intervals of silence he 

 remains motionless, with plumage ruffled, as if completely lost 

 in musical reverie." 



Contemporaneously with the above appeared a note* by Mr. 

 Ridgway announcing the supposed occurrence of the species at 

 Mt. Carmel, Illinois, where a bird thought to be Swainson's 

 Warbler was heard and seen, but unfortunately not seemed. 

 Some three years later the same author recordedf the detection 

 of the species in Texas, a specimen having been shot there in the 

 Trinity River bottom, Navarro County (presumably in the spring 

 of iSSo, though the date is not given), by Mr. J. Douglas 

 Ogilby. 



Excluding certain New England citations long since shown to 

 be erroneous, the above is believed to comprise everything 

 essential that occurs in the records down to the year 1SS4. During 

 1884 there were two announcements, the first a mere mention by 

 Mr. Walter Iloxiej of the finding the species at Frogmore, South 

 Carolina; the other a short article by Dr. Cones, § embodying 

 notes furnished him by Mr. Arthur T. Wayne. As the latter 

 paper is anticipatory to the matter which I am about to present. 

 as well as based on data which I am in a position to elaborate 

 more fully, as well as perhaps more accurately, than was Dr. 

 Cones. I shall not refer to it again, except, possibly, to call atten- 

 tion to certain statements which are either not warranted by the 

 evidence at hand, or directly negatived by it. 



In the hope of adding to the scanty store of knowledge just re- 

 viewed I visited .South Carolina in May. 1883, expressly to search 

 for Swainson's Warbler. Having letters of introduction to gen- 

 tlemen in Charleston, I made that city my headquarters, and 

 from it rambled over the neighboring country, exploring the 

 woods and swamps with all possible care and thoroughness. Of 

 this trip it is perhaps enough to say that it proved a failure, as far 



* Bull. N. O. C, Vol. Ill, 1878, p. 163. 



f Bull. N. O. C, Vol. VI, No. 1, Jan. 1881, pp. 54, 55. 



+ Orn. and Ool., Vol. IX, No. 11, p. 138. 



\ Forest and Stream, Nov. o, 1884, pp. 285, 286. 



