84 
SWAINSON’S SWAMP-WARBLER. 
Drummond, and others, who with a zeal equalled only by that of Wilson 
himself, have crossed the broad Atlantic, and made discoveries in ornithology 
in portions of North America never before visited, in which they have met 
with species that, although previously unknown to us, have since been found 
to traverse the whole extent of our wide territories. Then, reader, will you 
not agree with me in believing that even now, discoveries remain to be made 
in a region so vast that no individual, whatever might have been his 
exertions, could truly say of it that he had explored it all ? 
The bird represented in the plate before you was discovered by my friend 
John Bachman, near Charleston in South Carolina, while I was in another 
part of our continent, searching for the knowledge necessary to render my 
ornithological biographies as interesting as possible to you : — it was in the 
spring of 1832, when I was rambling over the rugged country of Labrador, 
that my southern friend found the first specimen of this bird, near the banks 
of the Edisto river. I have been favoured by him with the following 
account of it. 
“I was first attracted by the novelty of its notes, four or five in number, 
repeated at intervals of five or six minutes apart. These notes were loud, 
clear, and more like a whistle than a song. They resembled the sounds of 
some extraordinary ventriloquist in such a degree, that I supposed the bird 
much farther from me than it really was ; for after some trouble caused by 
these fictitious notes, I perceived it near to me, and soon shot it. 
“The form of’its bill I observed at once to differ from all other known 
birds of our country, and was pleased at its discovery. On dissection it 
proved to be a male, and in the course of the same spring, I obtained two 
other males, of which the markings were precisely similar. In the middle 
of August of that year, I saw an old female accompanied with four young. 
One of the latter I obtained : it did not differ materially from the old ones. 
Another specimen was sent to me alive, having been caught in a trap. I 
have invariably found them in swampy muddy places, usually covered with 
more or less water. The birds which I opened had their gizzards filled with 
the fragments of coleopterous insects, as well as some small green worms 
that are found on water plants, such as the pond lily ( Nymphcea odorata) 
and the JVdumbium ( Cyainits jlavicomus ). The manners of this species 
resemble those of the Prothonotary Warbler, as it skips among the low 
bushes growing about ponds and other watery places, seldom ascending high 
trees. It retires southward at the close of summer.” 
The Azalea and Butterfly acompanying the figure of this species were 
drawn by my friend’s sister, Miss Martin, to whom I offer my sincere 
thanks. 
Dr. T. M. Brewer informs me that a specimen of Swaiuson’s Warbler 
