Plate LX. 



" Fig. 3. PROTONOTARIA CiTREA-Prolhonoiary Warbler. 



The Prothonotary Warbler is included among the, summer residents of Ohio, on the authority of Mr. 

 Chas. Dury of Cincinnati, Ohio. He discovered its nest at the St. Mary's Reservoir in a deserted Wood- 

 pecker's hole. I have never seen this species alive and have no record of its time of arrival and 

 departure, and of its breeding habits within the limits of the State, other than just referred to. The follow- 

 ing text is condensed from a most interesting article by Mr. Win, Brewster, in the Nuttall Ornithologi- 

 cal Club Bulletin, October, 1878, and from ''Birds of North America," 



LOCALITY : 



This Warbler inhabits bottom-lands, principally bushy swamps, and willows along the borders of 

 stagnant lagoons, or ponds near rivers, and, in such localities, in common with the White-bellied Swal- 

 low takes possession of the holes of the Downy Woodpecker, Chickadee, and natural cavities in old stumps 

 and tree-trunks in which to build its nest. 



POSITION: 



The nest is seldom above fifteen feet from the ground, and usually is about four feet. To give a 

 description of the various situations in which it is placed, would entail an account of nearly every kind 

 of hole and tree-trunk. Suffice it to say the nest is snugly fitted to the chosen cavity, being supported 

 at its bottom and sides. 



MATERIALS : 



Fresh green moss enters largely into the composition of the nest, the shape and size of which varies 

 with that of the cavity in which it is placed. When the hole is deep it is usually filled up to within 

 four or five inches of the entrance. Thus the nest when removed presents the appearance of a compact 

 mass of moss five or six inches in height by three or four in diameter. When the cavity is shallow, it 

 is often only scantily lined with moss and a few fine roots. The deeper nests are of course the more 

 elaborate ones. One of the finest nests which Mr. Brewster found near Mt. Carmel, Illinois, is composed 

 of moss, dry leaves, and cypress twigs. The cavity for the eggs is a neatly rounded cup-shaped hollow, 

 two inches in diameter by one and a half in depth, smoothly lined with fine roots and a few wing feathers of 

 some small bird. Another nest taken near Neosho Falls, Kansas, was built in a Woodpecker's hole in 

 the stump of a tree, not more than three feet high. The nest was not rounded in shape, but made to 

 conform to the irregular cavity in which it was built. It was made of fragments of dried leaves, broken 

 bits of grasses, stems, mosses and lichens, decayed wood, and other materials, the upper portion consist- 

 ing of an interweaving of fine roots of wooded plants, varying in size, but all strong, wiry, and slender. 

 It was lined with hair. 



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