THE PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 103 



maximum abundance during the breeding season is reached 

 about the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. 



The freshest and most complete observations are given us by 

 Mr. William Brewster in an admirable essay in the Nuttall 

 Club's Bulletin for October, 187S (Vol. Ill, p. 153), and I 

 cannot do better than to condense it, since I iiave had no per- 

 sonal experience with the bird, advising all my readers to turn 

 to the original article. 



Mr. Brewster's locality was Mt. Carmel, southern Illinois, 

 and the time was April, 187S. The first warm days brought 

 a host of warblers and among all the gay revellers none were 

 more conspicuous than the beautiful prothonotaries. 



Day by day their numbers rapidly increased, until by April 27 all had 

 apparently arrived. We now found the prothonotary warbler to be, 

 in all suitable localities, one of the most abundant and characteristic 

 species. Along the shores of the rivers and creeks generally, wherever 

 the black willow (Salt'x niger) grew, a few pairs were sure to be found. 

 Among the button-bushes {^Cephalantkus occidentalis) that fringed the 

 margin of the peculiar long narrow ponds scattered at frequent intervals 

 over the heavily timbered bottoms of the Wabash and White rivers, they 

 also occurred more or less numerously. Potoka creek, a winding, slug- 

 gish stream, thickly fringed with willows, was also a favorite resort, but 

 the grand rendezvous of the species seemed to be about the shores of cer- 

 tain secluded ponds lying in what is known as the Little Cypress Swamp. 

 Here they congregated in astonishing numbers and earlj' in May were 

 breeding almost in colonies. In the region above indicated two things 

 were found to be essential to their presence, namely, an abundance of 

 -willows and the immediate proximity of water. Thickets of button- 

 bushes did, indeed, satisfy a few scattered and perhaps not over-particular 

 individuals and pairs, but away from water they are almost never seen. 



Mating began almost immediately after the arrival of the females, and 

 the " old, old story" was told in many a willow thicket by little golden- 

 breasted lovers. The scene enacted upon such occasions was not strik- 

 ingly different from that usual among smaller birds : retiring and some- 

 what indifferent coyness on the part of the female; violent protestations 

 and demonstrations from the male, who swelled his plumage, spread 

 his wings and tail, and fairly danced around the object of his aftections. 

 Sometmies at this juncture another male appeared, and then a fierce 

 conflict was sure to ensue. The combatants would struggle together 



