SWAINSON'S WARBLER 



45 



The Bird and its Haunts. — Swainson's Warbler has an interest- 

 ing history. Discovered by Bachman near Charleston, S. C, in 1832, 

 the bird remained virtually unknown until 1878. In the interv^ening 

 years, it is true, four additional specimens had been taken (see 

 Brewster^) but nothing was published concerning its habits until 

 Brown^ observed it in Alabama, on April 12 of the last-named year. 

 During the six following years the species was detected in Texas, and 

 again near Charleston, but it was not until 1884 that, with the excep- 

 tion of Bachman's and Brown's observations, we had any information 

 of this bird in nature. In that year through the definitely directed 

 efforts of Brewster^ and Wayne^ it proved to be a locally common 

 species near Charleston, as it has since been found to be in many other 

 places, and it is from Brewster's account of his field work in the spring 

 of the year mentioned that the following extracts are made: 



"While the facts already given prove incontestably that the 

 present species may occur at times in dry, scrubby, woods, or even in 

 such open situations as orange groves, it certainly haunts by prefer- 

 ence the ranker growth of swamps, to which, indeed, it appears to be 

 confined during the nesting season. * * * The particular kind 

 of swamp to which he is most partial is known in local parlance as 

 a 'pineland gall.' It is usually a depression in the otherwise level sur- 

 face, down which winds a brook, in places flowing swiftly between 

 well-defined banks, in others divided into several sluggish channels, or 

 spreading about in stagnant pools, margined by a dense growth of cane, 

 and covered with lily leaves or other aquatic vegetation. Its course 

 through the open pinelands is sharply marked by a belt of hardwood 

 trees nourished to grand proportions by rich soil and abundant mois- 

 ture. * * * More extensive swamps, especially those bordering 

 the larger streams, are subject to inundations, which, bringing down 

 deposits of alluvial soil, bury up or sweep away the humbler plants, 

 leaving a floor of unsightly mud, interspersed with pools of stagnant 

 water. Such places answer well enough for the Prothonotary and 

 Hooded Warblers, which, although essentially swamp lovers, are not 

 to any extent terrestrial; but you are not likely to find Swainson's 

 Warblers in them, unless about the outskirts, or in islands elevated 

 above the reach of the floods. Briefly, four things seem indispensable 

 to its existence, viz., water, tangled thickets, patches of cane, and a 

 rank growth of semi-aquatic plants. * * * 



"When not singing Swainson's Warbler is a silent, retiring bird, 

 spending nearly his entire time on the ground in the darkest recesses 

 of his favorite swamps, rambling about over the decaying leaves or 



