1S85.] Brewster o?/ Swai'nsox's Warbler. 6c) 



as its chief object was concerned, for I was obliged to return to 

 Massachusetts without having found the bird of which I was in 

 quest. One promising result was accomplished, however, Mr. 

 Arthur T. Wayne, a young local collector whom I had employed 



as guide and assistant, and who had become much interested in 

 the search, being engaged to continue it in my interests. But 

 during the year 1SS3 he also was unsuccessful. 



Although discouraged 1 by no means gave up hope, but early 

 the next spring (1SS4) returned to Charleston prepared to 

 devote the greater part of* the season to the pursuit. The first 

 three weeks of April passed profitably enough, as far as general 

 collecting was concerned, hut without developing anything of 

 special importance or interest. On the evening of April 22. 

 however. Wayne, who bad been out alone that day, called, and 

 handed me a bird with the simple question. "What is it?" One 

 glance was enough — the long sharp bill with its compressed 

 ridge extending well back on the forehead, the plain olive brown 

 back and reddish crown, and the delicate, lemon-tinted white of 

 the under parts were all unmistakable, for of course it was not 

 the first Swainson's Warbler I had seen. It was, however, the 

 very t\x$X freshly -killed one ; — and who does not know the differ- 

 ence ! 



Just a week later the second specimen was taken. I stum- 

 bled on it quite by accident while exploring a tract of oak scrub 

 covering a dry. in fact positively sandy, ridge on James Island. 

 opposite Charleston. It was feeding on the ground in company 

 with an Ovenbird {Siurus aurica-pillus) , and almost imme- 

 diately flew up into a sapling within a few yards of me. so 

 near, indeed, that I had to retreat several paces before shooting. 

 Wayne's bird was a male, this a female, with well-developed 

 ovaries, but evidently not ready to breed by at least a week or 

 two. 



After this the tide of success rose, if not rapidly, at least 

 steadily, and during the time that intervened before my depar- 

 ture for the North (May 10) seven more specimens were secured ; 

 thus I took home nine in all, or nearly as many as had been pre- 

 viously collected since the discovery of the species. At the time 

 this success was sufficiently gratifying, but it proved only the 

 earnest of what was to come, for during the following summer 

 and autumn, Mr. Wayne sent me thirty-six more ; all that be 



