V °i8g6 n l Faxox, Abbot's Drawings of Georgia Birds. 207 



America. Some sixty years before Abbot came to Georgia, Mark 

 Catesby was similarly engaged in illustrating the local fauna on 

 the other side of the Savannah River, with special reference to 

 the birds. Although Catesby had the advantage of a year's resi- 

 dence on the sea-board before he went up the Savannah River to 

 live at Fort Moore, the number of Carolinian birds described and 

 figured by him amounts to only 90 against Abbot's 160. Yet 

 Catesby followed the pursuit with such ardor that he did not 

 hesitate to affirm that few birds except aquatic species cOuld 

 have escaped him. 1 



On looking through the Abbot bird-portraits several arrest the 

 eye from their historic interest. Plate 68 is a good representa- 

 tion of Swainson's Warbler, drawn at least a quarter of a century 

 before this species was described and named by Audubon. On 

 the reverse of the plate is the following autograph note by Abbot : 

 " L. 6. May 8. Swamp. — Swamp Worm-eater." 



Swainson's Warbler was first described and figured by Audubon 

 in 1S34, 2 from specimens secured by John Bachman near Charles- 

 ton, S. C, in 1832. Its second introduction to public notice was 

 in the role of a bird of Georgia, in White's list of Georgia birds 

 published by Alexander Gerhardt in 1855. 3 The next record like- 

 wise relates to a Georgia specimen from Liberty County. 4 But 

 little was known concerning the habits of Swainson's Warbler until 

 1885, when Mr. William Brewster published a narrative of his 

 experience in the bird's haunts near Charleston in the summer of 

 1 88a. 5 It is now known to be a summer visitor to certain parts 

 of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisi- 

 ana, Texas, Southeastern Missouri, and the Dismal Swamp of 

 Virginia. 



1 The following species found among the Abbot drawings are not included 

 in White's very full list of the birds of Georgia, published in ' Naumannia,' 

 1855, 382 : Nyctea nyctea, Loxia leucoptera, Ammodramus leconteii, Otocoris 

 alpestris, Dendroica tigrina, Grits mexicana, Guara rubra, Totanus melanoleu- 

 cus, Porzana Carolina, Larus delawarensis. 



- Orn. Biog., II, 563. 



3 Naumannia, 1S55, 3S2. 



4 Baird, Birds of North America, 185S, p. 253. 



5 Auk, II, 1885, 65. 



