16 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 69 



westward to southern Alabama, eastern, Mississippi, and the 

 lower Mississippi Valley as far as southern Illinois, and westward 

 through southern Arkansas and the southeastern corner of Okla- 

 homa to at least Brazos County, Tex. 



During the mid-20th century, areas where it was reported as 

 locally common were mostly in the lower Mississippi Valley. How- 

 ever, the lower Mississippi Valley was the center of the most 

 intensive ornithological investigations during the period. It un- 

 doubtedly was common also in many areas east of the lower 

 Mississippi Valley. 



In northwestern Florida it was formerly reported as a locally 

 common breeding bird along the Wacissa River near Waukeenah, 

 along the Suwannee River near Old Town (Wayne, 1893, p. 338 ; 

 1895, p. 367), and along the Aucilla River (Howell, 1932, p. 386). 

 F. M. Weston (1965, p. 105) regarded it as an uncommon summer 

 resident at Pensacola. 



In Alabama it is rather widely distributed, with breeding con- 

 centrations in the Alabama River bottoms above Mobile and in 

 the vicinity of Bear Swamp a few miles west of Montgomery 

 (Howell, 1928, p. 284; Imhof, 1962, p. 439). 



In the Louisiana section of the lower Mississippi Valley, G. H. 

 Lowery (personal communication, 1962) reported it as commonly 

 breeding in the vicinity of Baton Rouge, and I found it locally 

 common in 1956-57 in Bayou Boeuf Swamp near Alexandria as 

 well as in the Tensas River area a few miles south of Tallulah. 



In the Mississippi River Delta, at Rosedale, Bolivar County, 

 Miss., M. G. Vaiden (personal communication, 1968) found nests 

 and reported the species as fairly common in the batture along 

 the Mississippi River. 



In eastern Arkansas I found it locally common in the lower 

 White River bottoms, in the East Moon Lake and Scrubgrass 

 Bayou areas, and along the Arkansas River between the mouth 

 of Bayou Meto and Pendleton Ferry. Five nests were located 

 in the latter locality between 1966 and 1968. 



Apparently the Swainson's Warbler was a breeding bird in the 

 late 1800*s and early 1900's in the St. Francis River "sunken 

 lands" of southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas, 

 where it occurred in canebrakes with the Bachman's Warbler 

 (Vermivora bachmanii) (Widmann, 1895, p. 115-117). Since the 

 time of Widmann's investigations, much of the swampland in that 

 area has been drained and the canebrakes destroyed. 



At Memphis, Tenn., B. B. Coffey, Jr., (1941, p. 30-31) reported 

 Swainson's Warblers nesting within the city limits and in at least 



