NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SWAINSON'S WARBLER 57 



Figure 24. — Swainson's Warbler nest in greenbrier vine, 2 feet above the 

 ground, Dismal Swamp in Virginia. 



hardwood forest at Charleston, W. Va., Sims and DeGarmo (1948, 

 p. 4) found that— 



the bird avoids placing the nest in dense cover, yet in all instances, a patch 

 of some type of such cover is within a distance of twenty-five to fifty feet. 

 In many cases, this thicket is a growth of greenbriar but may be grape, 

 honeysuckle, blackberry or bittersweet. There appears to be a definite effort 

 to locate the nest in such a manner that it is in close proximity to a screen 

 of protective cover. 



All nests that I found in territories of known boundaries were 

 inside the territorial borders. However, they were often near the 

 edge, or the male spent most of his time in an area to one side of 

 the nest. Sprunt and Denton (in Griscom and Sprunt, 1957, p. 51) 

 had this to say about the location of the nest in the defended 

 territory : 



The territory defended by the male is used primarily for mating and 

 feeding and not for nesting. The nest itself is usually located along the 

 margin of the territory but may be entirely outside of it . . . 



