n6 



THE PROTH( )XOTARY WARMLKR. 



upon a veritable fairy dell of woods and water, which even a Prothonotary 

 Warbler will go far to see. The seepage through the levee furnishes the 

 surrounding area with about two feet of standing water, at a level substan- 

 tially twenty feet below that of the main reservoir. Here the essential char- 

 acteristics of a southern swamp are reproduced, — tiny islands, verdant at the 

 waterV edge, but bristling with willow stuhs and weighted with decaying 

 tree trunks; dark, oozy channels and uncertain depths between; and a high 

 wall of halt open forest all about. Here above the ringing chorus of a bright 

 May morning one hears the high droning of the monarch, swick, zvick, wick, 

 wick, wick. Downy Woodpeckers have prepared the way. so generously, in 

 fact, that one peers into a half dozen likely-looking holes before coming upon 

 one, three or four feet above the water, which contains a heavy cushion of 

 moss and grass and horse-hair, upon which rest five or six large heavily- 

 colored eggs. Or else a natural cavity is found in some hollow limb, in 

 which case an immense amount of material is required to fill up the space to 

 within a moderate distance of the top. 



