8 THe -A.U DU. E.0O°N) 7. BU Li eal 
The grass swamp is a section of land that fioods in the spring and fall 
of the year, water being evident only at those times and drying up during 
the heat of the summer. It is in the coarse growth of long and short grasses 
which are characteristic of this type of swamp that the rails, bitterns, 
marsh hawks and sparrows nest. 
There is an island swamp to which I have been going for the past ten 
years, situated in the bottom lands of the Illinois River valley, about 100 
miles southwest of Chicago. The main attraction of this swamp is that it 
holds about 400 nests of great blue herons, the young of which I try to band 
Young marsh hawk in a grass swamp 
each year. If the water is low this swamp will by the first of July have 
giant ragweeds standing from eight to ten feet high, intermingled with 
wild cucumber vines. As many as 70 species of birds have been found on 
or near this island in the month of June. 
May 28, 1942, a trip was taken to this swamp by Alfred M. Reuss, Jr., 
Mrs. Amy G. Baldwin and the author. To get to the island we had to row 
for an hour and a half. The trip was made specifically to see whether the 
American egrets were nesting. They were. This is the farthest north that 
these birds have nested in Illinois since their recovery from near 
extermination. 
Upon arrival we found a log under a shady tree and had our lunch. 
While eating I mentioned that I had been going to this island for ten years 
and had never seen a redstart’s nest. Just then my eye caught a yellow 
flash in a grapevine and, upon following it, lit upon a female redstart 
building a nest. The nest was about five feet from where we were sitting. 
Was I surprised! It was not completed but had in it cotton down from the 
willow trees and fine strips that were taken from the center of the giant 
ragweeds. 
The wooded section was just full of song and a check discovered the 
following 62 species: 
Double-crested cormorant, great blue heron, American egret, green 
heron, black-crowned night heron, wood duck, red-shouldered hawk, sparrow 
