22 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



were in old woodpecker holes from two to a hundred and sixty feet 

 back from the river-bank." 



Many and varied are the odd nesting sites occupied by prothonotary 

 warblers. Dr. Thomas S. Koberts (1936) writes: 



The vagaries of this bird in choosing artificial nesting-places are shown by 

 the positions of the following nests. On the La Crosse railroad bridge : in a 

 cigar-box nailed on the engine-house on top of the draw ; on one of the piers ; 

 in a metal ventilator-cap four inches in diameter, that had fallen and lodged 

 just at the point where the draw banged against the pier, and close under the 

 tracks ; in a shallow cavity in a piece of slab-wood nailed to a trestle-support 

 close under the road-bed of the railroad ; these all far out in the middle of the 

 Mississippi River. Still others are : in a Bluebird box on a low post by a switch- 

 ing-house and busy railroad platform ; in a cleft in a pile in the river ; in a 

 tin cup in a barn, to reach which the birds entered through a broken pane of 

 glass; in a pasteboard box on a shelf in a little summer-house; in an upright 

 glass fruit jar in a house-boat ; and other similar situations. In most cases the 

 birds had to carry the nesting-material long distances, especially to the places 

 on the bridge. 



John W. Moyer (1933) relates an interesting story that was told to 

 him by people living in a farm house along the Kankakee River. A 

 pair of these warblers built their nests and raised their broods for 

 three consecutive seasons in the pocket of an old hunting-coat, hung 

 in a garage ; each year the man cleaned out the nest and used the coat 

 in the fall, and the next spring the birds used it again. M. G. Vaiden 

 tells me of a similar case. 



Nests have been found in buildings, on beams and other supports. 

 Louis W. Campbell (1930) reports two on shelves in sheds, one in a 

 small paper sack partly filled with staples and another in a coffee 

 can similarly filled. Nests in cans in various situations have been 

 found a number of times, and others have been reported in a tin 

 pail hung under a porch, in a mail box, in a box on a moving ferry 

 boat, in a Chinese lantern on a pavilion, and in an old hornets' nest. 



Dr. Walkinshaw writes to me : "At Reelfoot Lake, Tenn., during 

 July, 1940, I found 8 nests of the prothonotary warbler, all built a 

 few feet above the water in small natural holes in cypress knees. 

 Evidently these are regular late-summer nesting sites." The knees 

 were farther under water earlier in the season. Most of his 76 

 Michigan nests were over water, or less than 100 feet from it ; but 10 

 were 300 or more feet away from it and 2 were over 400 feet away. 

 M. G. Vaiden tells me of a pair that nested in the tool box of a log- 

 loading machine that was in daily operation, hauling logs. 



Eggs. — From 3 to 8 eggs have been found in nests of the prothono- 

 tary warbler, from 4 to 6 seem to be the commonest numbers, 7 is a 

 fairly common number, and at least 3 sets of 8 have been reported ; 

 in the J. P. Norris series of 70 sets are 34 sets of 6, 15 sets of 7, and 

 2 sets of 8. 



