MNIOTILTID.E THE AMERICAN WARBLERS. 119 



Protonotaria citrea (Bodd.) 



PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 



Popular synonyms. Golden Swamp Warbler: Willow Warbler. 



Motacilla citrea BODD. Tabl. P. E. 1783, 44 (based on PI. Enl, 704, fig. 2). 

 Protonotaria citrea BAIKD. B. N. Am. 1858, 239; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 1C9; Review, 

 ISM, 173. COUES, Key, 1872, 93; Check List, 1873, No. 59; 2d ed. 1883, No. 95; B. N. W. 

 1874, 47; B. Col. Val. 1878, 210.-B. B. & R, Hist. N. Am. B. i, 1874, 181, pi. 10, fig. 8. 

 RIDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 75. 

 Motacilla protonotarius GM. Sylvia protonotarius LATH. WILS. Am. Orn. iii, 1811, 72, 



pi. 24. fig. 3. NUTT. Man. i, 1832, 410. AUD. Orn. Biog. i. 1832, 22; v, 1839, 460, pi. 3. 

 Helinaia protonotarius AUD. Synop. 1839, 67; B. Am. ii, 1841, 89, pi. 106. 

 Motacilla auricollis GMEL. Sylvia auricollis LATH. NUTT. Man. i, 1832, 380. 

 Sylvicola auricollis NUTT. Man. 2d ed. 1840, 431. 



HAB. Eastern United States, chiefly in the Mississippi Valley, where breeding abun- 

 dantly in willow swamps, north to at least 40 in Illinois and immediately contiguous 

 States. Straggling northward (blown by storms) to Maine and New Brunswick. Winters 

 in Cuba, Yucatan, and southward to Panama. 



SP. CH. Back olive-green; wings, rump and tail, plain bluish gray, or plumbeous; 

 head and lower parts yellow, the latter white posteriorly; inner webs of tail feathers 

 (except middle pair) white tipped with dusky. Adult male in spring: Entire head and neck, 

 and lower parts, except crissum, rich mellow gamboge yellow, varying to cadmium- 

 yellow; top of head sometimes touched or tinted with cadmium-orange, occasionally 

 tinged or washed with olive-green, but often pure yellow. Bill uniform deep black; iris 

 brown; legs and feet dark plumbeous. Adult male in fall and winter: Similar, but yellow 

 lighter, or less inclining to cadmium, the top of the head always (?) overlaid by a wash 

 of olive-green. Adult female: Similar to the duller colored males, but yellow appre- 

 ciably less pure, the pileum always olive-greenish, and gray of wings, etc., less bluish. 



Total length, about 5.40; wing, 2.90; tail, 2.25. 



Wherever there are swamps surrounded by woods and bordered 

 by willow trees, and especially if the growth of the latter be ex- 

 tensive, this beautiful bird is almost sure to occur. In the southern 

 half of the state it is, in such localities, one of the most abundant 

 birds. 



In a letter dated July 9, 1884, Mr. H. K. Coale, of Chicago, in- 

 forms me that on May llth a few Prothonotary Warblers were found 

 in the woods along the Kankakee River, in Stark county, Indiana, 

 about sixty miles southeast of Chicago. On the 18th, a dozen or 

 more were seen, and on the 25th, having by that time "learned 

 their clear sharp note, repeated four or five times on the same 

 pitch," he could hear them all along the timber; but as he looked 

 for them near the water's edge in the "pucker brush" he did not 

 see many. By carefully following the call of the male he discover- 

 ed that the birds kept in the tops of the small trees, often flying 



