WARBLERS 



113 



than is shown by the Brown Creeper, for ex- 

 ample. That bird does not attempt to come 

 down a tree trunk head foremost, nor to circle a 

 horizontal limb, feats which are managed with 

 Nuthatch-like ease by the Black and White 

 Warbler. Altogether the Warbler is a much 

 better " creeper " than the Creeper is. However, 

 for reasons which doubtless seem good and suffi- 

 cient to them, the ornithologists have seen fit 

 to eliminate from the bird's name the term which 

 describes its most characteristic habit, and the 

 inclusion of which certainly would have been of 

 much assistance in identifying the species. 



The literal translation of its scientific name, 

 is very appropriate; Miiiotilta means moss- 

 plucking and refers to its habit of searching in 

 the moss on trees for its insect food ; z'aria is 



variegated and, of course, has reference to the 

 striped eil'ect of its coloration. 



The terms " wiry " and " thin " are usually em- 

 ployed in describing this bird's songs, and are 

 perhaps as descriptive as any that could be used. 

 One song consists of eight or ten notes of the 

 same pitch and tone uttered in closely connected 

 couplets, the syllables being like jTt-i' and 

 zcivcc. The other, wliich is less frequently 

 heard, though it is longer than the one first men- 

 tioned, has about the same beginning, but shows 

 more variation in its development, while the tone, 

 a sort of lisping whistle, is mellower and more 

 musical. About the most that can truthfully be 

 said of these utterances is that the bird seems to 

 have made the best use of a feeble and none too 

 musical instrument. 



PROTHONOTARY WARBLER 



Protonotaria citrea (Boddacrt) 



.\ II L'. .Numhrr <.i7 See (olor Plate gj 



Other Names. — Gulden Warbler ; Gnlden Swamp 

 Warbler; Willow Warhler. 



General Description. — Length, 5' 2 inches. Fore 

 and under parts, yellow ; upper parts, yellowish olive- 

 green. Bill, shorter than head, wedge-shaped ; wing, 

 rather long and with long pointed tip ; tail, slightly 

 rounded. 



Color. — Adult M.ale- Head, neck, and under parts 

 {except under tail-cozerts) . rich yellow, the head some- 

 times tinged or flecked with cadmium orange ; back and 

 shoulders, plain yellowish olive-green, this sometimes 

 extending forward over hindneck and back of head; 

 rump, upper tail-covert.s, wing-coverts, and inner wing- 

 feathers, plain gray; secondaries, primaries, and tail- 

 feathers, black, edged with slate-gray, the inner webs 

 of tail-feathers (except middle pair), white tipped with 

 blackish: under tail-coverts, white; under wing-coverts, 

 white, tinged with yellow ; inner webs of wing-feathers, 

 edged with white; bill, black in summer, lighter colored 

 in winter; iris, brown; legs and feet, dusky. .Adult 

 Female: Similar to the male, but smaller and much 

 duller in color; olive-green of back extended forward 



over hindneck and crown : yellow of under parts, less 

 intense, tinged with olive, and becoming much paler 

 on abdomen and flanks, the latter strongly tinged with 

 olive ; bill, dusky in summer, lighter colored in winter. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Usually in deserted hole of 

 a Downy Woodpecker or Chickadee, otherwise in almost 

 any cavity or hole, from 2 to 15 feet up (averag- 

 ing about 5) and almost always in a stump stand- 

 ing or leaning over water; carefully and thickly lined 

 with moss. Eccs : 5 to 7, commonly 6, varying from 

 creamy-white to buffy-white, glossy, heavily blotched 

 with rich chestnut, lavender, and purple. 



Distribution. — More southern portions of eastern 

 United States, breeding from Gulf States (northern 

 Florida to eastern Texas), north to Virginia, southern 

 Ohio, Indiana, southern Michigan, northeastern Illi- 

 nois, Iowa, southeastern Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, 

 etc., occasionally northward to Massachusetts, south- 

 eastern New York. Ontario, and Wisconsin, casually 

 to Maine and New Brunswick; south in winter to 

 Cuba and through eastern Mexico and Central .America 

 to Ci:ilombia. N'enezuela, and Trinidad. 



The Prothonotary Warbler is a southern 

 \\'^arbler whose range does not extend as far as 

 Canada. It is coinmon in the Ohio vallev and in 

 the Carolinas and on down in the bottom lands 

 of the Mississippi and the rivers that flow into 

 the Gulf of Mexico. Rut everywhere it must 

 have its home by running water and generally 

 in the willows. It prefers those districts which 



sufTer from spring floods. This has given it the 

 names of the Golden Swamp Warbler and \\i\- 

 low Warbler. There is no use looking for the 

 bird awav from a stream or swamp. It does not 

 stray awav. With its sweet and penetrating pert, 

 tweet, t-cvcet. tzvect or siveet. sweet, sweet, sweet. 

 it tells the traveler that water is near. \\'hen the 

 bird is found he is generally industriously going 



