NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SWAINSON'S WARBLER 15 



Ocean and extends from just above the Delaware-Maryland line 

 southward nearly to the Virginia boundary. Only a few scattered 

 pairs nest in this cypress-gum disjunct swamp. 



The Swainson's Warbler is locally common in the Great Dismal 

 Swamp in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Caro- 

 lina, and in certain floodplain forests just below the fall line. In 

 many of these river floodplains its distribution coincides with 

 that of the giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea). It was also re- 

 ported to be common in the 1960's in the Ocmulgee River flood- 

 plain forest, 3 to 5 miles south of Macon, Bibb County, Ga.; in 

 the Savannah River Valley, from Augusta, Richmond County, 

 Ga., downstream about 25 miles; and in the Wateree River 

 Swamp, northwest Sumter County, S.C. Scattered pairs and sing- 

 ing males have been reported from many other areas in the 

 Carolinas and Georgia. 



The distributional status of the Swainson^s Warbler in the 

 lower Coastal Plain of South Carolina and Georgia has apparently 

 changed in the last 50 years. In the Living Bird, Fifth Annual, 

 (Meanley, 1966, p. 152), I made the following comments regard- 

 ing the former abundance of this species in the lower Coastal 

 Plain of the Southeast : 



At the close of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Swainson's 

 Warblers were apparently more numerous in the lower Coastal Plain than 

 they are today. Wayne (1910:149-150) found them to be common breeding 

 birds near Charleston, South Carolina, as did Perry (1887:142) near Savan- 

 nah, Georgia. During the period of 22 April to 25 September 1884, Wayne 

 collected 47 specimens of this species near Charleston. Considering modes of 

 travel available to Wayne and the limited area of his operations, his collect- 

 ing of so many specimens would seem to indicate a sizable population in the 

 area. Perry (1887) reported 24 active nests near Savannah in the spring of 

 1887, which likewise suggests that Swainson's Warblers were more abundant 

 in the late 19th century than at present. E. S. Dingle of Huger, South 

 Carolina, who worked with Wayne and who bridged the gap between Wayne's 

 time and the present, informed me in April 1958 that he had noted during 

 his lifetime a marked downward trend of the population in the coastal area. 

 A. Sprunt, Jr. (in Sprunt and Chamberlain, 1949:435), a protege of Wayne's, 

 has seen this warbler only four times in the lower Coastal Plain of South 

 Carolina. 



In the lower Savannah River Valley, an area extending 30 miles upriver 

 from Savannah, E. 0. Mellinger and I found only scattered individuals and 

 occasional pairs during the early 1960's — certainly not the numbers and 

 concentrations found farther up the valley near Augusta, as reported by 

 Murphey (1937:42), Norris (1963:47), and J. F. Denton (pers. commun.). 



Gulf C oastal Plain 



In the Gulf Coastal Plain the Swainson's Warbler occurs from 

 north of the Suwannee River in northern Florida, northward and 



