PROTHONOTARY WARBLER 17 



most record of occurrence in North America and later than it is nor- 

 mally found in the United States. 



A specimen was collected near Pullman, Wash., on August 15, 1948, 

 the first record for the State. 



Egg dates. — Massachusetts: 31 records, May 18 to June 14; 17 

 records. May 25 to June 3, indicating the height of the season. 



New Jersey : 7 records. May 18 to June 8. 



Tennessee : 3 records. May 1 to 17. 



North Carolina : 6 records, April 20 to 28. 



West Virginia : 7 records. May 6 to 29 (Harris) . 



PROTONOTARIA CITREA (Boddaert) 



PROTHONOTARY WARBLER 



Plates 4-6 



HABrrs 



I do not like the above name for the golden swamp warbler. The 

 scientific name Protonotaria, and evidently the common name, were 

 apparently both derived from the Latin protonotarius^ meaning first 

 notary or scribe. I sympathize with Bagg and Eliot (1937), who 

 exclaimed : 



What a name to saddle on the Golden Swamp-bird! Wrongly compounded 

 in the first place, wrongly spelled, wrongly pronounced ! We understand that 

 Protonotarius is the title of papal officials whose robes are bright yellow, but 

 why say "First Notary" in mixed Greek and Latin, instead of Primonotarius? 

 Proto is Greek for first, as in prototype. Why and when did it come to be 

 misspelled Protho? Both Wilson and Audubon wrote Protonotary Warbler, a 

 name seemingly first given to the bird by Louisiana Creoles. Both etymology 

 and sense call for stress on the third syllable, yet one most often hears the 

 stress laid on the second. Here, certainly, is a bothersome name fit only to be 

 eschewed ! 



The scientific name cannot be changed under the rules of nomencla- 

 ture, but a change in the common name would seem desirable. How- 

 ever, the name does not make the bird or detract from its charm and 

 beauty. It will still continue to thrill with delight the wanderer in 

 its swampy haunts. 



The center of abundance of the prothonotary warbler as a breeding 

 bird in this comitry is in the valleys of the Mississippi Eiver and its 

 tributaries, notably the Ohio, the Wabash, and the Illinois Rivers. 

 Its summer range extends eastward into Indiana and Ohio, northward 

 into southern Ontario, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, and west- 

 ward into Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas— 

 wherever it can find suitable breeding grounds. 



