ii6 



THE PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 



I'lii'to by the Author. 

 WHERE THE PKOTHONOTAKV NESTS. 



A NESTING HOLE APPEARS IN THE FOREGROUND IN 'PJlE CENTRA^ PANEL. 



Upon a veritable fairy dell of woods and water, which even a Prothonotary 

 Warbler will go far to see. The seepage through the levee furnishes the 

 surrounding area with about two feet of standing water, at a level substan- 

 tially twenty feet below that of the main reservoir. Here the essential char- 

 acteristics of a southern swamp are reproduced, — tiny islands, verdant at the 

 water's edge, but bristling with willow stubs and weighted with decaying 

 tree trunks ; dark, oozy channels and uncertain depths between ; and a high 

 wall of half open forest all about. Here above the ringing chorus of a bright 

 May morning one hears the high droning of the monarch, swick, zi'ick. ivick, 

 wick, zi'ick. Downy Woodpeckers have prepared the way, so generously, in 

 fact, that one peers into a half dozen likely-looking holes before coming upon 

 one, three or four feet above the water, which contains a heavy cushion of 

 moss and grass and horse-hair, upon which rest five or six large heavily- 

 colored eggs. Or else a natural cavity is found in some hollow limb, in 

 which case an immense amount of material is required to fill up the space to 

 within a mr)derate distance of the top. 



