DESCRIPTIVE LIST 275 



The Prothonotary Warbler is a common summer bird in our eastern swamps, 

 arriving from the south about the middle of April and remaining as late as early 

 September. It nests in holes in trees or stumps. The nest lining consists of fine 

 grass, moss, and other materials, forming a compact mass on which five or six eggs 

 are laid. These are white with spots and blotches of lavender, reddish brown, 

 purple, and black, the markings in some cases being so extensive as almost to hide 

 the ground-color, and again merely forming bold but scattered markings. Size 

 .70 x .52. (For further information as to its nesting habits, see Barnes in The 

 Ornithologist and Oologist, March, 1889.) 



In this State we have but few records of nests having been found. One was found 

 by Pearson on May 12, 1898, near Cape Hatteras. It contained four slightly incu- 

 bated eggs, and was in a natural cavity of a living holly tree, twelve feet from the 

 ground. Another, containing young, was discovered by Philipp and Bowdish on 

 Great Lake, in June, 1909. 



This strikingly beautiful Warbler is essentially a lover of water, being abundant 

 in cypress swamps and along sluggish streams. 



The localities from which it has been recorded in the State are Bertie County; 

 Raleigh and Wakefield in Wake County; White Lake in Bladen County; the Craven 

 County lakes; Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County; Cape Hatteras, Dare County; 

 Beaufort, Carteret County; Gatesville, Gates County; Orton, Brunswick County; 

 and Jacksonville, Onslow County. 



Genus Helinaia (Aud.) 

 274. Helinaia swainsoni (Aud.). SWAINSON'S WARBLER. 



Description: Ads. Crown cinnamon-brown; a whitish line over the eye; back, rump, wings, 

 and tail olive-grayish brown without white; underparts soiled, yellowish white, grayer on the 

 sides. L., 5.00; W., 2.75; T., 1.90; B. from N., .46. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. South Atlantic and Gulf States, wintering in the West Indies. 



Range in North Carolina. Swamps of the coastal region. 



FIG. 221. SWAINSON'S WARBLER. 



This is a plain-colored warbler, inhabiting the canebrakes and swamps of the 

 Lower Austral Zone in the United States, and in this State has been recorded 

 from Craven County, where a single specimen was taken on April 13, 1885, by 



