TG THE PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. — 
Photo by fhe Abithor. 
WHERE THE PROTHONOTARY NESTS. 
A NESTING HOLE APPEARS IN THE FOREGROUND IN THE CENTRAL PANEL. 
upon a veritable fairy dell of woods and water, which even a Prothonotary 
Warbler will go far to see. The seepage through the levee furnishes the 
surrounding area with about two feet of standing water, at a level substan- 
tially twenty feet below that of the main reservoir. Here the essential char- 
acteristics of a southern swamp are reproduced,—tiny islands, verdant at the 
water's edge, but bristling with willow stubs and weighted with decaying 
tree trunks; dark, oozy channels and uncertain depths between; and a high 
wall of half open forest all about. Here above the ringing chorus of a bright 
May morning one hears the high droning of the monarch, swick, wick, wick, 
wick, wick. Downy Woodpeckers have prepared the way, so generously, in 
fact, that one peers into a half dozen likely-looking holes before coming upon 
one, three or four feet above the water, which contains a heavy cushion of 
moss and grass and horse-hair, upon which rest five or six large heavily- 
colored eggs. Or else a natural cavity is found in some hollow limb, in 
which case an immense amount of material is required to fill up the space to 
within a moderate distance of the top. 
