Vo1 ' 1920 XVH ] HoLT > Bachmatis Warbler in Alabama. 103 



BACHMAN'S WARBLER BREEDING IN ALABAMA. 



BY ERNEST G. HOLT. 



Plate IV. 



The history of Vermivora bachmani, as one of the "lost species," 

 of Audubon holds much of interest to the ornithologist. Dis- 

 covered at Charleston, S. C, by Dr. Bachman in 1833, the bird 

 was not taken again in the United States until 1886, when Charles 

 S. Galbraith collected a specimen for millinery purposes near Lake 

 Pontchartrain, Louisiana. In the spring of 1887, a specimen was 

 picked up beneath the Sombrero Key lighthouse off the southern 

 coast of Florida. Though these two captures stimulated the efforts 

 of collectors, and the species proved to be common in Florida and 

 Louisiana during migration, it was not discovered breeding until 

 1897 when Otto Widmann found nests in southeastern Missouri. 

 Subsequently the species has been found breeding near Charleston, 

 S. C, by Wayne, and in Logan County, Ky., by Embody. 



As Widmann did not actually find nests in Arkansas, there are 

 records of the breeding of Bachman's Warbler in three states 

 only — Missouri, South Carolina, and Kentucky and it is with 

 considerable satisfaction therefore that I am enabled to add a 

 fourth — Alabama. 



The species was not known to occur in Alabama until 1908 

 (cf. Saunders, Auk, Vol. XXV, pp. 416 and 421, October, 1908), 

 but since 1912 it has been frequently observed in spring by Lewis 

 S. Golsan, in Bear Swamp, near Autaugaville, and on Pine Creek, 

 near Prattville. The bird had never been seen by me until May 

 25, 1919, when I was visiting "Laurel Pools" in Bear Swamp, 

 southern Autauga County, with Mr. Golsan. An adult male was 

 then observed singing, and a little later I almost ran over a nest 

 in some low blackberry vines beside a path that Mr. Golsan had 

 cut between two of the pools. 



The nest, a bulky structure of dead leaves of white or red bay 

 (Magnolia or Persea), some of which were skeletonized by insects, 

 and herbaceous plant stems, was supported one foot above the 



