THE PROTHONTARY, OR GOLDEN SWAMP WARBLER. 



HE Golden Swamp Warbler is 

 one of the very handsomest 

 of American birds, being noted 

 for the pureness and mellow- 

 ness of its plumage. Baird notes that 

 the habits of this beautiful and inter- 

 esting warbler were formerly little 

 known, its geographical distribution 

 being somewhat irregular and over a 

 narrow range. It is found in the West 

 Indies and Central America as a mi- 

 grant, and in the southern region of 

 the United States. Further west the 

 range widens, and it appears as far 

 north as Kansas, Central Illinois, and 

 Missouri. 



Its favorite resorts are creeks and 

 lagoons overshadowed by large trees, 

 as well as the borders of sheets of 

 water and the interiors of forests. If 

 returns early in March to the Southern 

 states, but to Kentucky not before the 

 last of April, leaving in October. A 

 single brood only is raised in a season. 

 A very pretty nest is sometimes 

 built within a Woodpecker's hole in a 

 stump of a tree, not more than three 

 feet high. Where this occurs the nest 

 is not shaped round, but is made to 

 conform to the irregular cavity of the 

 stump. This cavity is deepest at one 

 end, and the nest is closely packed 

 with dried leaves, broken bits of 

 grasses, stems, mosses, decayed wood, 

 and other material, the upper part 

 interwoven with fine roots, varying in 

 size, but all strong, wiry, and slender, 

 and lined with hair. 



Other nests have been discovered 

 which were circular in shape. In one 



instance the nest was built in a brace 

 hole in a mill, where the birds could 

 be watched closely as they carried in 

 the materials. They were not alarmed 

 by the presence of the observer but 

 seemed quite tame. 



So far from being noisy and vocifer- 

 ous, Mr. Ridgway describes it as one 

 of the most silent of all the warblers, 

 while Mr. W. Brewster maintains that in 

 restlessness few birds equal this species. 

 Not a nook or corner of his domain but 

 is repeatedly visited during the dav. 

 " Now he sings a few times from the 

 top of some tall willow that leans out 

 over the stream, sitting motionless 

 among the marsh foliage, fully aware, 

 perhaps, of the protection afforded by 

 his harmonizing tints. The next 

 moment he descends to the cool 

 shadows beneath, where dark, coffee- 

 colored waters, the overflow of a pond 

 or river, stretch back among the trees. 

 Here he loves to hop about the floating 

 drift-wood, wet by the lapping of pul- 

 sating wavelets, now following up some 

 long, inclining, half submerged log, 

 peeping into every crevice and occas- 

 ionally dragging forth from its con- 

 cealment a spider or small beetle, turn- 

 ing alternately its bright yellow breast 

 and olive back towards the light; now 

 jetting his beautiful tail, or quivering 

 his wings tremulously, he darts off 

 into some thicket in response to a call 

 from his mate ; or, flying to a neigh- 

 boring tree trunk, clings for a moment 

 against the mossy hole to pipe his little 

 strain, or look up the exact where- 

 abouts of some suspected insect prize." 



171 



