PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 257 



Until recently, naturalists knew nothing more of this species than 

 Nuttall put into the above few lines ; and for that information he was 

 indebted to Audubon. Only three examples were taken between 

 Audubon's time and 1873, when Nathan C. Brown captured three 

 more in Alabama; and eleven years afterwards, in 1884, William 

 Brewster collected fifty specimens in the vicinity of Charleston, 

 and published in " The Auk " for January, 1885, an interesting 

 account of the bird's habits. 



He reports that he met with this bird in dry, scrubby woods or 

 open orange-groves, though it prefers the ranker growth of the 

 swamps, to which it appears to be confined during the breeding 

 season. Its song is said to be "very loud, very rich, very beau- 

 tiful, while it has an indescribable tender quality that thrills the 

 senses after the sound has ceased." 



The distribution of the species has not yet been very satisfac- 

 torily determined, but it probably occurs in all the South Atlantic 

 and Gulf States, and along the Mississippi valley north to Illinois 

 and Indiana. 



PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 



Protonotaria citrea. 



Char. Head, neck, and under parts golden yellow; back bright 

 olive ; wings, tail, and rump, bluish ash ; inner webs of tail-feathers white. 

 Length about 5J4 inches. 



Nest. On the margin of a stream or pond or in a swamp ; a cavity in 

 dead tree, often a deserted nest of Woodpecker or Chickadee, generally 

 near the ground ; lined with leaves and moss. 



Eggs. 4-7 (usually 6) ; white, or with buff tint, thickly spotted with 

 brownish red ; 0.70 X 0.55. 



This beautiful species inhabits the Southern States commonly 

 in summer, being plentiful in the low, dark, and swampy forests 

 of the Mississippi near New Orleans, as well as in Louisiana 

 and the wilds of Florida. In these solitary retreats individuals 

 are seen nimbly flitting in search of insects, caterpillars, larvae, 

 and small land shells, every now and then uttering a few creak- 

 ing notes scarcely deserving the name of song. They some- 

 times, though very rarely, proceed as far north as Pennsylvania. 

 They appear to affect watery places in swamps which abound 

 with lagoons, and are seldom seen in the woods. According to 



VOL. I. — 17 



