296 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



attractive in favorable light. Even the splendid and 

 loquacious rose- breasted grosbeak, who leisurely searches 

 the elm buds which please his fancy for lurking insects, 

 and who as he is working sings in a manner noticeable even 

 by the most indifferent observer, can be discovered on his 

 perch only by acute eyes. The prothonotary warbler, 

 however, can not be overlooked, for in its beauty it flashes 

 out from its sombre surroundings to the delight of the 

 bird-lover. Its chosen home is in the overflowed bottom 

 lands of river and swamp-lake, among willows stunted and 

 blighted by the continually changing floods, where elms 

 and maples grow slender and tall and finally droop with 

 their imperfect garniture of sickly foliage, where mud and 

 debris lie underfoot, and where the "twilight of the forest 

 noon" is never dispelled by the genial sunshine. Amid 

 such environments we find the vivacious little prothono- 

 tary warbler flitting from branch to trunk, now high, 

 now low, its short song ringing all day long in accompa- 

 niment to its life of activity and gayety. 



This handsome little warbler is by no means shy in its 

 natural home, and frequently one will alight near us on 

 some bare twig and allow us to observe it. Its chief 

 beauty lies about its head, and we can not fail to admire 

 the rich orange yellow, a glowing background for its jet 

 bill and eyes, the latter flashing from their coaly depths 

 the animation which makes the life of this warbler so 

 attractive to the bird-lover. The bill seems a trifle too 

 long for the comparative size of the bird, but its blackness 

 serves to make it appear longer than it really measures. 

 Now the steely blue of the back invites our notice, and 

 the leaden hue of the shoulders and wings. Away goes 

 the restless creature, but only to reveal new beauties; for 

 as the warbler alights on another adjacent perch, it daintly 

 expands its tail in fan-like movement and exhibits the 

 beautiful border of white adorning the sides and extremity 

 of that member. It is an interesting fact that the birds 

 which are possessed of handsome tails love to display their 

 beauties as they fly. Most persons have seen the hand- 

 some towbee or chewink flitting out of some brush pile and 

 spreading its long black tail as though to display the 

 showy white tips of some of the outer feathers. Who 



