Part 11

Dr. Chapman (1907) says: "The route of the Prothonotary Warbler in its fall migration is interesting; the breeding birds of the Middle Atlantic States apparently pass southwest to northwestern Florida and then take a seven-hundred-mile flight directly across the Gulf of Mexico to southern Yucatan, instead of crossing to Cuba and thence to Yucatan."

Alexander F. Skutch writes to me: "Unrecorded from Guatemala, the prothonotary warbler is a rare bird of passage and very rare winter resident in the more southerly portions of Central America. When Carriker published his list of Costa Rican birds in 1910, he had a few records from the highlands--apparently of migrating birds--and from the Pacific lowlands, but none from Caribbean lowlands. But on March 4, 1934, I found it not uncommon at Puerto Limón, where I saw one among the royal palms in Vargas Park, and several among the shrubbery about the outlying cottages, all within a hundred yards of the Caribbean Sea. It has been recorded a number of times from the Canal Zone, but it is not common there. It is almost always seen in the vicinity of water."

Winter.--Apparently the main winter range is in Colombia and perhaps Venezuela. Referring to Magdalena, Colombia, P. J. Darlington, Jr. (1931), writes: "The Prothonotary Warbler swarms during the winter in the mangroves at Sevillano and in the fresh swamps at Cienaga. It was seen also in bushes on the sea beach at Donjaca September 15, and along the Rio Frio River in the edge of the foothills, where it was especially common in February. The birds usually occur near water, but numbers were noted again and again in yellow-flowering, acacia-like trees on the border of stump land and dry forest, far from water."

DISTRIBUTION

Range.--Eastern United States to northwestern South America.

Breeding range.--The prothonotary warbler breeds =north= to southeastern Minnesota (Cambridge, Lake Pekin, and La Crescent); central Wisconsin (New London and Shiocton); southern Michigan (Hesperia, Lansing, and Ann Arbor); northern Ohio (Toledo and Cleveland); extreme southern Ontario (Rondeau); western New York (Buffalo and Oak Orchard); northern West Virginia (Parkersburg); central Maryland (Seneca and Bowie); and southern Delaware (Gumboro). =East= to southern Delaware (Gumboro); eastern Virginia (Dyke, near Alexandria, and Dismal Swamp); and the Atlantic coast to central Florida (Lake Gentry and Padgett Creek). =South= to central Florida (Padgett Creek and possibly Puntarossa); the Gulf coast to southeastern Texas (Cove, Houston, and Bloomington). =West= to central Texas (Bloomington, Fort Worth, and Gainesville); central Oklahoma (Norman and Oklahoma City); eastern Kansas (Emporia and Manhattan); northwestern Iowa (Lake Okoboji); and southeastern Minnesota (Rochester, Red Wing, and Cambridge).

The prothonotary warbler has been recorded as casual or accidental =west= to southeastern Nebraska (Powell and Lincoln); southeastern South Dakota (Yankton and Sioux Falls); and central Minnesota (Brainerd). =North= to southern Ontario (London and Hamilton); central New York (Ithaca); Massachusetts (Northampton, Amherst, and Concord); New Hampshire (Concord); and Maine (Matinicus Island and Calais).

Winter range.--The winter home of the prothonotary warbler is in Central America and northwestern South America where it has been found =north= to northwestern Costa Rica (Bolson); Nicaragua (Escondido River). =East= to northwestern Venezuela (Mérida and Encontrados); and western Colombia (San José de Cucuta and Villavieja). =South= to southwestern Colombia (Villavieja); and northwestern Ecuador (Esmeraldas). =West= to northwestern Ecuador (Esmeraldas); western Colombia (Antioquia); western Panamá (Paracote and David); and Costa Rica (Puntarenas and Bolson). It has been reported to occur in winter in Campeche and on Cozumel Island, Mexico, and casually or accidentally in Cuba (Habana), Jamaica, and St. Croix, Virgin Islands.

Migration.--The probable route of the prothonotary warbler between its summer and winter homes is across the Gulf of Mexico, from the Yucatan peninsula where it occurs in both spring and fall migration. The casual or accidental occurrences of this warbler in Cuba (Habana); Jamaica; and St. Croix, Virgin Islands, are in migration.

Late dates of spring departure are: Colombia--Villavieja, February 5. Panamá; Canal Zone--Barro Colorado, March 10. Nicaragua--Edén, March 23. Quintana Roo--Cozumel, April 6. Cuba--Habana, April 4.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Yucatán--Mérida, March 28. Jamaica--Black River, February 28. Cuba--Habana, March 31. Florida--Pensacola, March 18. Alabama--Booth, April 4. Georgia--Fitzgerald, March 21. South Carolina--Yemassee, March 27. North Carolina--Greenville, April 6. Virginia--Suffolk, April 10. Mississippi--Gulfport, March 18. Louisiana--Morgan City, March 10. Texas--Cove, March 28. Arkansas--Huttig, March 31. Missouri--St. Louis, April 17. Kentucky--Bowling Green, April 5. Illinois--Murphysboro, April 17. Ohio--Berlin Center, April 18. Michigan--Grand Rapids, May 3. Iowa--Iowa City, April 26. Wisconsin--Madison, May 2. Minnesota--Red Wing, May 7. Oklahoma--Tulsa, April 2. Kansas--Manhattan, April 26. Nebraska--Blue Springs, April 30.

Late dates of fall departure are: Nebraska--Watson, September 1. Oklahoma--Oklahoma City, September 14. Texas--Kemah, September 11. Wisconsin--Racine, September 22. Iowa--Sioux City, August 31. Michigan--Three Rivers, September 13. Ohio--Columbus, October 5. Illinois--Oak Park, October 17. Kentucky--Lexington, October 6. Tennessee--Elizabethton, October 19. Louisiana--Monroe, October 8. Mississippi--Deer Island, September 27. North Carolina--Raleigh, August 26. South Carolina--Charleston, September 17. Georgia--Atlanta, October 8. Yucatán--Chichén-Itzá, October 18.

Early dates of fall arrival are: Florida--Fort Myers, August 8. Yucatán--Chichén-Itzá, October 7. Honduras--Tela, September 8. Nicaragua--Río Escondido, September 2. Costa Rica--Bonilla, August 28. Panamá--Obaldia, September 15. Colombia--Gaira, September 11.

Banding records.--Banding provides a hint as to the life-span of the prothonotary warbler. One banded as an immature on June 16, 1940, in Convis township, Calhoun County, Mich., was color banded when it returned to the same place in 1942. Subsequently it was identified by the colored band on May 14, 1944, and May 10, 1945.

Casual records.--The prothonotary warbler was reported at Nassau, Bahamas, on August 29, 1898. It has been twice reported at Bermuda: one shot from a flock in the fall of 1874, and another specimen collected in November 1903. A single bird was observed at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Park, Wyo., on September 10, 1931. There are two records for Arizona. On May 1, 1884, a specimen was taken near Tucson at an altitude of 2,300 feet, the highest record of the species in the United States. Another specimen was taken September 8, 1924, at Cave Creek, 4 miles northeast of Paradise in the Chiricahua Mountains.

Egg dates. Florida: 8 records, April 18 to May 9; 5 records, April 28 to 30.

Illinois: 79 records, May 6 to June 21; 46 records, May 20 to June 4, indicating the height of the season.

Iowa: 56 records, May 15 to June 26; 36 records, May 27 to June 6 (Harris).

LYMNOTHLYPIS SWAINSONII (Audubon)

SWAINSON'S WARBLER

CONTRIBUTED BY EDWARD VON SIEBOLD DINGLE

PLATES 7-9

HABITS

"The history of our knowledge of Swainson's Warbler," write Brooks and Legg (1942), "is a curious one, falling into definite periods." This bird was discovered in the spring of 1832 by the Rev. John Bachman "near the banks of the Edisto River, South Carolina." His discovery of the bird is described as follows: "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" (Audubon, 1841). Dr. Bachman took five specimens; then, up to the spring of 1884, Swainson's warbler remained almost a lost species, for according to Brewster (1885a) there is no record of more than eight or nine birds being collected. Wayne, through collections and field work near Charleston, opened a productive 25-year period in the history of swainsonii, in which many valuable contributions were made by various observers. From 1910 to 1930 the name swainsonii was practically absent from the pages of current ornithological literature.

Brewster (1885a) has given us the best description of the bird's haunts in the low country:

The particular kind of swamp to which he is most partial is known in local parlance as a "pine-land gall." It is usually a depression in the otherwise level surface, down which winds a brook, in places flowing swiftly between well-defined banks, in others divided into several sluggish channels or spreading about in stagnant pools, margined by a dense growth of cane, and covered with lily leaves or other aquatic vegetation. Its course through the open pine-lands is sharply marked by a belt of hardwood trees nourished to grand proportions by the rich soil and abundant moisture. Beneath, crumbling logs cumber the ground, while an undergrowth of dogwood (Cornus florida), sassafras, viburnum, etc., is interlaced and made well-nigh impenetrable by a network of grapevines and greenbriar. These belts--river bottoms they are in miniature--rarely exceed a few rods in width; they may extend miles in a nearly straight line.

The writer has had a long acquaintance with Swainson's warbler in the low country of Carolina. Except during September (fall migration) the birds were almost never seen out of sight of substantial growths of cane, even when the nests were built in bushes, low trees, or vines. This has been the experience of practically all observers and, as Brooks and Legg (1942) remark, "an idée fixe among ornithologists" existed; the familiar description of habitat by Brewster (1885a) became a dictum: "Briefly, four things seem indispensible to his existence, viz., water, tangled thickets, patches of cane, and a rank growth of semi-aquatic plants."

Hence, the ornithological world received a surprise to learn that swainsonii was a summer resident and breeder in different localities of high altitude in the Appalachian Chain. Although several observers have found the bird nesting beyond the limits of the Coastal Plain, even in Piedmont territory, as La Prade (1922) did at 1,050 feet above sea level, it was E. A. Williams (1935) who first detected it in a truly mountainous terrain. During two successive summers he found birds near Tryon, N. C., "in open woods."