I02 NBSTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



but mj hopes were thus brightened only to be cast down, for no other 

 nest was found in spite of the most untiring and intelligent searching. 



This warbler must arrive on the Rio Grande in March, but the great 

 majority do not breed until June. The site selected (and little time 

 need be wasted in choosing it) is one of the thousands of tresses of 

 Tillandsia (Spanish moss), which everywhere drapes the trees, or 

 among the dense tufts of a mistletoe-like orchid which attaches itself 

 in similar abundance to partiallj' dead branches. The orchid contain- 

 ing the nest before me was firm in texture, and grew upon the drooping 

 end of a Brazil-wood tree about ten feet from the ground. The nest 

 itself was simply a cavity formed by spreading the gray leaves of the 

 orchid and digging into its very centre from the side, making a cavity 

 some two inches wide and deep, with a narrower opening. The bottom 

 and sides of this grotto are lined with short cottony wood-fibres, form- 

 ing an elegant matting for the eggs. The whole orchid could be packed 

 in a cigar-box, and is firm and secure ; yet how easil}- was it adapted to 

 a bird's home ! 



The egg, like the nest, betrays a close affinity to that of Pm-ula 

 americana. It has the same spots of lilac and brown forming a broad 

 band near the larger end, while, here and there over the whole surface, 

 a fleck of the same color appears on a dull white ground. The single 

 egg taken measures .67 of an inch long by .46 broad. I confidently 

 expect this bird to be found in wooded districts north of the Rio Grande 

 valley and possibly north of the Nueces. That this form has not been 

 met with in Mexico by the several fieid-ornithologists who have visited 

 that region seems strange, yet the diminutive size of the bird and its 

 frequenting the tops of the tallest trees, would assist greatly in its 

 concealment. (PI. IX. Fig. f^%bis.') 



59. PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 



PROTONOTARIA CITREA (Bodd.) Bd. 



Golden Swamp Warbler ; Prothonotary. 



The home of this tlelicate bird is the swamps from Central 

 America northward. It is found most abundantly throughout 

 the Gu/y states, but extends its migrations north to Kansas, 

 Missouri, southern Illinois and Indiana, and occasionally to 

 Pennsylvania and Maryland. Indeed, it is probable that its 



