Prothonotary Warbler. 299 



out with regularly increasing pitch, short but loud, clear^ 

 and remarkably vibratory. 



They are very restless creatures. All about the claimed 

 limits of the pair the male flits, peering into every nook 

 and cavity, examining every available site for a home, 

 and picking up morsels of food from the crevices of the 

 logs and stumps. Frequently in his explorations the 

 male peeps into a cavity occupied by the wife of a neigh- 

 bor. He scarcely has time to withdraw his head, how- 

 ever, ere the jealous owner guarding the exterior is upon 

 him, and the prying visitor is not slow in retreating before 

 the fierce assault of the watchful sentinel. The inordinate 

 restlessness of these warblers is second only to that of the 

 wrens, and we are reminded of the movements of those 

 little busybodies as we watch the warblers incessantly 

 hopping and flitting from one station to another. They 

 are known as " willow wrens " in some localities, yet while 

 their habits are so nearly like those of the wrens, they 

 are real warblers, and their song is not much unlike that 

 of the well-known yellow warbler, though it is executed 

 with more spirit and intensity. 



The nesting period of the prothonotary warbler begins 

 soon after the first of May in advanced seasons, and about 

 the middle of the month in ordinary years. In 1896 I 

 found nests with full sets of eggs on the 12th of May, yet 

 in ordinary seasons the nests do not contain their comple- 

 ments until about the 20th. The usual nesting sites are 

 cavities in stumps and trees standing in water, or so sit- 

 uated that the nest is over water, or somewhere in the 

 vicinity of water. In seasons of drought the early reced- 

 ing of the water frequently leaves their nesting grounds 

 bare and dry, as it did in 1895 in the locality where ray 

 notes were made. It was my fortune that spring to exam- 

 ine about fifty- five nests of the warbler. While the sites 

 of all the nests were on the banks of rivers and lakes, no 

 site was found in water or over water, though in the next 

 spring most of the same sites were in water which did not 

 recede before the close of the nesting period. My notes 

 record only two nests below five feet from the ground, 

 and in the majority of instances the cavities were about 

 nine feet from the ground, the distances varying from four 



