Life History of the Prothoriotary Warbler. 13 



When mig-rating, the great Mississippi Valley is the high- 

 way up which these transient warblers pass, until, finally 

 reaching the mouth of the Ohio, the hosts separate, im- 

 mense numbers traveling up the latter stream, and the 

 rest, perhaps the majority, continuing up the Mississippi. 

 Many of those pa>.^ing up the Ohio Valley find summer 

 homes along its numerous tributaries and. around the 

 many sloughs, bayous, and lagoons in southern Illinois ; 

 while the rest, pushing on, deviate from their course only 

 at the mouth of the Wabash River. But few, if any, con- 

 tinue up the Ohio, there being comparatively no attrac- 

 tions for them in its valley east of the Wabash. In the 

 lower valley of the latter stream the prothonotary 

 warbler is exceedingly abundant, inhabiting the timbered 

 bayous and lagoons, the cypress swamps, and the wil- 

 low-environed lakes and ponds. Mr. Wm. Brewster's 

 account of this warbler in Wabash county, undoubtedlj^ 

 the most elaborate biography of this species yet writ- 

 ten, gives some idea of its abundance in this attrac- 

 tive locality.* Mr. E. W. Nelson also gives it as a 

 common bird in the same locality in his excellent 

 paper, "Notes upon Birds observed in Southern Illinois 

 between July 17 and September 4, 1875. "t As far north 

 as Danville the bird appears to be common, as Mr. G. C. 

 Pearson reports it as well represented in that vicinity. 

 In a recent letter, Mr. J. H. Hitt, of Indianapolis, Ind., 

 informs me that the warbler is quite rare there, only 

 one nest having been found, and that at New Castle. It 

 extends its migration up the Wabash River to certain 

 points in Indiana, although at present it appears to be 

 very sparingly distributed in that State. The bird is 

 considered a "rare summer resident" in Carroll county, 

 Ind., by Mr. B. W. Evermann. 



Although great numbers of this species pass up the 

 Ohio, and thus to the Wabash, undoubtedly the ma- 

 jority continue up the Mississippi, some branching 

 off at the Kaskaskia and Missouri, immense numbers 



*Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club. Vol. III. (1878), p. 155. 

 tBull. Essex Inst.. Vol. IX., p. 34. 



