Tennessee Swamp Warbler

Tennessee Swamp Warbler [now Tennessee Warbler]
Helinaia peregrina, Wilson [now Leiothlypis peregrina]
Octavo edition, plate 110

“So very rare does this little bird seem to be in the United States, that in the course of all my rambles I never saw more than three individuals of the species. The first was procured near Bayou Sara, in the State of Louisiana, in the spring of 1821, when I drew it with the holly twig on which it was standing when I shot it . . . Of its migrations or place of breeding I know nothing. It is an active and nimble species, an expert catcher of flies, fond of hanging to the extremities of branches, like several others of the tribe. It utters a single mellow tweet, as it passes from one branch to another in search of food, or while on the wing, when it moves in a desultory manner for some distance, diving suddenly towards the tree on which it intends to alight.”

John James Audubon, Birds of America (New York: J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier, 1840-1844), vol. 2, p. 96.

View bird in National Audubon Society Guide to North American Birds.