564 SWAINSON'S WARBLER. 



extent of our wide territories. Then, reader, will you not agree with me 

 in believing that even now, discoveries remain to be made in a region so 

 vast that no individual, whatever might have been his exertions, could 

 truly say of it that he had explored it all ? 



The bird represented in the plate before you was discovered by my 

 friend, John Bachman, near Charleston in South Carolina, while I was 

 in another part of our continent, searching for the knowledge necessary to 

 render ntiy ornithological biographies as interesting as possible to you : — 

 it was in the spring of 1832, when I was rambling over the rugged coun- 

 try of Labrador, that my southern friend found the first specimen of this 

 bird, near the banks of the Edisto River. I have been favoured by him 

 with the following account of it. 



" I was first attracted by the novelty of its notes, four or five in num- 

 ber, repeated at intervals of five or six minutes apart. These notes were 

 loud, clear, and more like a whistle than a song. They resembled the 

 sounds of some extraordinary ventriloquist in such a degree, that I sup- 

 posed the bird nuich farther from me than it really was ; for after some 

 trouble caused by these fictitious notes, I observed it near to me, and 

 soon shot it. 



" The form of its bill I observed at once to differ from all other 

 known birds of our covmtry, and was pleased at its discovery. On dis- 

 section it proved to be a male, and in the course of the same spring, I ob- 

 tained two other males, of which the markings were precisely similar. In 

 the middle of August of that year, I saw an old female accompanied with 

 four young. One of the latter I obtained : it did not differ materially 

 from the old ones. Another specimen was sent to me alive, having been 

 caught in a trap. I have invariably found them in swampy muddy 

 places, usually covered with more or less water. The birds which I 

 opened had their gizzards filled with the fragments of coleopterous insects, 

 as well as some small green worms that are fovmd on water plants, such as 

 the pond lily (Nymphoea odorata) and the Nelumbhim (Cyamus jlavi- 

 comus). The manners of this species resemble those of the Prothonotary 

 Warbler, as it skips among the low bushes growing about ponds and 

 other watery places, seldom ascending high trees. It retires southward 

 at the close of summer." 



The Azalea and Bvitterflies accompanying the figure of this species 

 were drawn by my friend's sister, Miss Martin, to whom I again offier 

 my sincere thanks. 



