THE OOLOGIST. 



105 



Westeru Red-tiiil's eggs, two of the 

 Western Hoi'ued Owl, and the resolve 

 on the part of H. that he would never 

 again go collecting w'hen it looked like 

 rain. I hope the readers of the OciLO- 

 GIST have chosen fairer daj'S for their 

 trips this season. 



M. L. VViCKs, Jr., 

 Los Angeles, Cal. 



The Prothonotary Warbler in Dry Weather. 



The birds t^\ iilently have their sea- 

 sons of hard times as well as more ra- 

 tional beings. For birds which seek 

 the vicinity of water to rear their young 

 and for species which haunt the sloughs 

 and marshes, the prevalent dry weather 

 has meant hard times and changes of 

 living to agree with the new conditions. 

 Many of the lake-swamps bordering the 

 larger water-courses of the Mississippi 

 Valley have not received their annual 

 renewal of water, and hence the breed- 

 ing area of many of the water birds has 

 been materially reduced. The large 

 regions of swamp w^oods, overgrown 

 with the willows and water-soaked 

 stubs which alTord ue.sting sites for the 

 Warljler whose name heads this paper, 

 were submerged or overflowed only for 

 a few days in the early spring or else 

 not even covered by the low stage of 

 water. The Ewamp Warbler has hence 

 found the present .season one of differ- 

 ent conditions than its normal habits 

 are accustomed to, and in our study of 

 this species this year, we are given an 

 opportunity to know something of this 

 Warbler in dry weather. 



When the Prothonotary Warblers 

 made their regular migration up the 

 great waterway where they are found 

 in such profusion, and spi'ead nut along 

 the smaller tributaries to find summer 

 residences wherever the conditions 

 were favorable and their fancy led 

 them, they doubtless found the willow 

 grounds high and dry at the time of 

 their arrival. The dead and rotten 



stubs which usually were damp and 

 watei'-soaked by the stagnant overOow 

 in which they commonly stood, were 

 now dry, and the moss which the birds 

 love to pull gi'een and dafnp from the 

 water-logged bark, was now blackened 

 and dry as tow. 



It appeared to me that this lack of 

 standing water on the grounds fre- 

 (juented bj- this Warbler had ^\ depress- 

 ing effect on the well-known vivacity 

 and bouyancy of spirits so much ad- 

 mired by those who have met the Pro- 

 thonotary Warbler in its watery haunts. 



The same old pugnacious disposition 

 would manifest itself, though I was in- 

 clined to notice a less degree of fierce- 

 ness than I had observed in the former 

 mid-air battles over the green-scummed 

 and moss- covered water. The old in- 

 quisitive spirit of cui'iosity was there 

 also, yet I thought I could detect a sort 

 of resigned air about the somewhat 

 tardier movements of the birds as they 

 visited the cavities they chanced to find 

 in their wanderings. 



Their songs I'ang out as clearly and 

 as vibratory as in former seasons, yet 

 to my ear thei-e was the lack of that 

 sweet .sympathetic depth of feeling up- 

 welling from the breast which finds 

 ever^'thing congenial and is therefore 

 perfectly contented. 



In short there seems less of spontan- 

 eity of exuberant joyousness, of real 

 happiness, and of that wonderful vi- 

 vacity of manners which have ever 

 characterized this Warbler, and the 

 observer was led to feel that some 

 chord was out of unison and that all 

 was not right in the life which should 

 be perfect sunshine and harmony. 



Most writers and observers of the 

 breeding habits of the Prothonotary 

 Warbler agree that the usual nesting 

 sites are in cavities situated in stumps 

 and trees stamling in water or so located 

 that the nest is over water, or in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of water. It was my 

 fortune to examine about iifty-live nests 



