186 GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. 
clammy azalea!, the fragrant pinxter flower’, and the flame-colored azalea’, the dazzling 
flowers of which vie with the glories of aurora and the hues of the setting sun, are in 
many places the predominating shrubs of the eastern swamps. 
I mentioned the ever-present mystery of these swamps, and this is not only true in 
regard to the plants but even more so in regard to the animal life. If surrounded by 
fields and meadows, or if situated on the borders of woods, these swamps harbor a 
large number of birds. The inimitable song of the Veery, and the enchanting notes of the 
Golden-crowned Thrush, we nowhere else hear so frequently. The clamoring sounds of 
the Blue Jay, the busy mallet beating of the Downy and Red-headed Woodpecker on 
hollow trees, the fine call-note of the Brown Creeper running up and down and around 
the limbs of tree-trunks in quest of food, the caressing chicka-dee-dee of the Black- 
capped Titmouse, the solemn yank, yank of the Nuthatch, are common sounds during 
the fine days of June. One of our most admirable writers on nature, Mr. Geo. B. Ell- 
wanger, says: 
“The swamp is nature’s sanctuary—the great game-keeper and game-protector. 
It is the rampart of the landscape. Within its sheltering arms is matured the most 
beautiful of sylvan utterances, the roll-call of the Ruffed Grouse. Without its helping 
hand both furred and feathered game must il many localities become virtually extermin- 
ated, and a wood without game is a wood devoid of one of the most individual 
attributes.”’* 
In these swamps the Swamp Sparrow, our familiar Catbird, one of the best 
songsters we have, the White-eyed Vireo and many others find a congenial home. Near 
the edges we may look for the bright Maryland Yellow-throat and the pretty Mourning 
Warbler, while the Black-throated Blue Warbler leads a more solitary life amidst the 
dense shrubs. 
In the foregoing introduction I have delineated the true home of the GoLpEN- 
WINGED WARBLER, the subject of this sketch. In such localities our beautiful little bird 
is by no means uncommon, but we have to keep a sharp lookout, in order to discover 
it in the dense vegetation. It generally appears in the middle of May, when the orchard 
trees and white-thorns are in full bloom. When it hops around among the new leaves 
or snowy white blossoms in quest of inseét food, it is not shy, being easily observed. 
Even at a distance it may be readily distinguished by its rich yellow crown and broad 
wing-bars of yellow, its black throat, the black stripe through the eye, and the slaty- 
blue back. In its summer-haunts it usually searches for inseéts in shrubs, but during 
migration it visits in company with other species of the same family the flowering 
orchard trees, procuring its food precisely in the same manner as the true Wood Warblers 
(Dendroica). In Texas I found it common in spring, usually at the time when the great 
magnolia blooms exhaled their delicious perfume. In south-western Missouri it was a 
rare migrant in April. In Wisconsin I have never noticed its arrival before May 15. 
It is a bird of eastern North America, its dispersion being limited in the West. Mr. N. 
S. Goss, in his model ‘Catalogue of the Birds of Kansas,” does not enumerate it. Its 
breeding range extends from the mountainous regions of northern Georgia northward. 
1 Azalea viscosa. 2 A. nudiflora. 3 A, calendulacea. 
* G. B. Ellwanger, “A Garden's Story," p, 253. 
