VO i's 9 ^ VI ] RoBERTS > The Prothonotary Warbler in Minnesota. 237 



Without delaying to define at length the general range of the Pro- 

 thonotary Warbler it will suffice to recall to mind that it is com- 

 monly considered as breeding in abundance in the Mississippi 

 Valley only as far north as southern Iowa and middle Illinois. 

 Beyond this it is looked upon as merely a straggler. Ridgway, in 

 ' Birds of Illinois,' says : " Breeding abundantly in willow swamps 

 north to at least 40 in Illinois and contiguous States." Keyes 

 and Williams in their ' Catalogue of Birds of Iowa ' say : " Sum- 

 mer resident ; not uncommon especially in the eastern part of the 

 State." Records for northern Iowa and Wisconsin are infrequent 

 and merely call attention to the capture of rare stragglers. Cook's 

 ' Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley ' contains nothing more 

 definite. The 'A. O. U. Check-List ' for 1895 states, "Casually 

 to New England, Ontario, and Minnesota." Dr. Hvoslef's cap- 

 ture of a single Prothonotary Warbler opposite the mouth of the 

 Root River below La Crosse, August 16, 1874, though several 

 times quoted as a Minnesota record belong properly to Wisconsin. 

 Cantwell, in his ' List of the Birds of Minnesota,' published in the 

 'Ornithologist and Oologist' for September, 1890, states, from 

 information gathered from Johnson of Red Wing and Harrison of 

 La Crescent : " Common along the Mississippi River in the 

 South as at Red Wing and La Crescent ; breeding at both places." 

 In 'The Oologist' for November, 1890, appeared a short article 

 by Mr. Whit Harrison, of La Crescent, Houston County, Minne- 

 sota, calling attention to the Prothonotary Warbler as a regular 

 summer resident in southeastern Minnesota. He did not at 

 that time consider the bird common, and the article is chiefly 

 devoted to an interesting account of some curious nesting sites 

 selected by the species, to which reference will be made later in 

 this paper. In ' Bulletin No. 4 of the Wilson Ornithological 

 Chapter,' published at Oberlin, Ohio, January 15, 1895, there is a 

 report of a nest of the Prothonotary Warbler, " taken in Good- 

 hue County, Minnesota, June 13, 1893." In 'The Oologist' for 

 June, 189S, is an article by Mr. C. B. Johnson of Red Wing, 

 Goodhue County, Minnesota, giving for the first time definite and 

 conclusive testimony as to the regular and common occurrence of 

 this Warbler at that locality, one hundred and fourteen miles by 

 way of the Mississippi Valley from the southern boundary line 



