SWAINSON’S WARBLER. 181 
of the Connecticut Warbler under similar conditions. The chief difficulty is to find him, 
for if on the ground his coloring harmonizes so well with that of the general surface 
that the keenest eye may overlook him, while he is not apt to start unless almost 
trodden on. Like most thicket-haunting birds, however, he is intensely curious, and by 
concealing yourself and producing a shrill screeping or chirping you may often call him 
directly to you. More than once has this plan been successful when I had no idea that 
the bird was near. On one such occasion the victim proved a female, which had 
unmistakably just laid her full set of eggs. I had barely begun to ‘screep’ on the edge 
of a small cane-brake bordering a brook, and surrounded by comparatively open ground 
swept clear of undergrowth, and the usual débris, by a recent fire, when there was a 
glimmer of wings and the Warbler appeared, alighting on the stem of a cane. Upon 
shooting and examining her I discovered that she was incubating. As it was near noon 
of a very sultry day, and birds of all kinds closely hidden, I felt sure that she had come 
directly from the nest. This conviction became almost a certainty when, a few paces 
further on, I flushed and secured her mate. Needless to say, the remainder of. the day 
was devoted to searching that thicket.. But although it covered only a few square rods 
of surface, the nest could not be found.” 
Several nests were found by Mr. Wayne in the last week of June, 1885, near 
Charleston. He writes: ‘The first was built in a cane over a pool of stagnant water, at 
a height of about five feet; the secand, also in cane, was at a height of at least eight feet, 
and over clear, running water. It was found when the birds had just begun work, and 
I watched them repeatedly at their labors. They would fly up from the ground, and, 
hovering like a Hawk or Kingfisher, fix the leaves in place with their bills.” The first 
nest contained two eggs “dead white without spots’; the second three eggs of a dull 
white ground-color with a faint bluish tinge. One of these eggs was perfectly plain, the 
second one had two or three minute spots, while the third was unmistakably spotted 
and blotched with pale-lilac, forming a well-defined ring on the larger end. One of the 
nests was neat and compact, while the other one was rather bulky. The structure is 
usually composed of bleached straw-colored cane leaves, leaves of the sweet gum, water- 
oak and holly, Spanish moss, with an interior lining of pine needles and thread-like 
strands of black moss (Tillandsia). 
NAMES: Swatnson’s WARBLER, Swainson’s Swamp Warbler. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Sylvia swainsoni Aud. (1834). HELINAIA SWAINSONI Avp. (1839). Helmitherus 
swainsoni Brd. (1858). 
DESCRIPTION: “Crown and nape, reddish-brown; remainder of upper parts, including the sides of neck, 
clear olive, the wings, tail, and upper tail-coverts, tinged with reddish-brown; under parts creamy 
white with a lemon-yellow tinge, most pronounced on the breast and abdomen, faintest on the throat 
and crissum; sides of body, brownish-olive; sides of breast, olivaceous-ashy, extending completely across 
the breast in a broad but rather indistin& band of pale, nebulous spots; throat, abdomen, and crissum, 
immaculate; a dusky stripe starting at the lores (which are nearly black) passes backward along the 
side of the head intersecting the eye and separating a conspicuous, brownish-white, superciliary stripe 
from the region below the eye, which is dappled with a reddish-brown on a creamy-white ground. 
There is also a short, yellowish, concealed median stripe on the forehead. Iris hazel; legs and feet 
flesh-color. Sexes undistinguishable.” (Brewster.) 
Length, 5.65 inches; wing, 2.82; tail 2.03 inches. 
