170 PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Motacilla varia Linn. (1766). Certhia varia Vieill. (1807). MNIOTILTA VARIA 
VIEILL. (1816). Certhia maculata Wils. (1811). 
DESCRIPTION: General color, black, the feathers broadly edged with white; the head black, with a median 
stripe in the crown, a superciliary and maxillary one of white. Middle of belly, two broad bands on 
the wings, inner edge of all wing and tail feathers, white; rump and upper tail-coverts black, edged 
externally with white; the sides of body broadly streaked with black; the chin and throat more or 
less black. Female similar, but colors duller. 
Length, 5.25 inches; wing, 2.80; tail, 2.10 inclies. 
PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 
Protonotaria citrea BAIRD. 
PLATE X. 
SOUTHERN INDIANA and Illinois and adjacent districts in Missouri have a very 
S rich avifauna. The magnificent bottom woods, the numerous swamps and ponds, 
and the extensive thickets which skirt every water-course afford excellent haunts for 
numerous birds. The flora is entirely different from that of our Northern States. The 
southern cypress reaches here its northern limit. Tall sycamores, sweet gums, water 
oaks, white elms, coffee-trees, black gums, tulip trees, honey-locusts, black walnuts, 
hackberries, and hickories predominate. Now and then we see a beautiful specimen of 
Catalpa speciosa. ‘These woods,” says Mr. R. Ridgway, “are very open, it being 
comparatively easy, in many places, to drive through them with a light wagon. There 
is almost no shrubby undergrowth, the usual underwoods consisting of red-bud', dog- 
wood?, pawpaw*, and mulberry‘, here attaining the stature of good-sized trees. The 
unobstructed sunlight, which, directly, or by reflection and diffusion, freely permeates all 
portions of these beautiful forests, promotes the development of a luxuriant and varied 
herbaceous growth—grasses, sedges, ferns, flags, balsam-plants®, cardinal flowers’, etc., 
according to locality, and others far too numerous to mention; even the decaying logs 
are covered with weeds, thus presenting the appearance of miniature gardens. Other 
characteristic features are the abundance and luxuriance of climbing plants, embracing 
no less than four (probably five) species of wild grape, the Virginia creeper, cross-vine’, 
trumpet-flower’, pipe-vine*, and others, not forgetting the far too abundant poison 
vine”. The switch-cane", occasionally, chiefly monopolizes the soil, and the scouring 
rush” sometimes constitutes the exclusive growth, but only in a few places of limited 
extent. 
“It is because of this abundance of sunlight and exuberance of vegetation, that 
these woods surpass all others in abundance of bird-life, and, therefore, afford the richest 
1 Cercis canadensis. % Cornus florida. % Asimia triloba. 4 Morus rubra, 5 Impatiens fulva and pallida. 6 Lobelia 
eardinalis. 7 Bignonia capreolata. % Tecoma radicans, ® Aristolochia tomentosa. 10 Rhus toxicodendron. 11 Arundi- 
naria tecta, 12 Equisetum hyemale. 
