176 PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 
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. 
“The number of eggs constituting a full set varies to an unusual degree; two 
nests were found, each of which contained seven eggs, while in another instance a nest, 
which from its position could not possibly have been molested, had only one, nearly 
ready to be hatched. Out of fifteen nests found, two included seven eggs; three, six; 
three, five; four, four; two, three; and one, one egg. The average number is probably 
five or six. The ground-color is clear, lustrous white, with a high polish. Eggs from 
different sets vary considerably in markings, but two types of coloration seem to 
prevail. In one, spots and dottings of dull brown with faint submarkings of pale 
lavender are generally and evenly distributed over the entire surface. In the other, bold 
blotches of bright reddish-brown are so thickly laid on, especially about the larger ends, 
that the ground-color is in some instances almost entirely obscured. 
“In the hope of presenting to the reader’s mind some slight idea of the general 
character and surroundings of the locality where the Prothonotary Warblers were found 
breeding in the greatest abundance, I close with a brief description of a visit, on May 
11, to the Cypress Swamp. Towards the middle of the afternoon we reached Beaver 
Dam Pond, and embarked in an old weather-beaten dugout. Our guide, a half-breed 
Indian and a most accomplished woodsman, took his station in the stern, and with a 
vigorous shove upon his long push-pole sent the frail craft well out into the pond. 
Before us stretched a long, narrow sheet of water hemmed in on every side by an 
unbroken wall of forest trees. Around the margin grew a fringe of button-bushes, with 
a sprinkling of tall slender willows, while behind and above them towered the light- 
green feathery crests of numerous cypresses. The low shores were in many places 
flooded with water for a considerable distance back into the woods, to where the land 
rose in broken ridges and the cypresses gave way to a growth of oaks, black-walnuts, 
lindens, and numerous other forest trees. The depth of the water, even in the centre of 
the pond, did not exceed five feet, and over the greater part of its extent rank grasses, 
yellow water-lilies, and other aquatic plants reared their tall stalks or broad leaves in 
such profusion, that everywhere, except immediately around the canoe, the eye rested 
upon what seemed a meadow of waving green. The few acres of comparatively open 
water were sprinkled with water-lilies! or thickly studded with the delicate, star-shaped 
blossoms of the Cabomba caroliniana,; the moss-like stems of which extended in a 
perfeé&t labyrinth beneath the surface. As we pushed our way through the denser 
growths, the stems yielded before the bow with a slight rustling sound. Wood Ducks 
and Hooded Mergansers rose on every side, while their broods of downy ducklings 
scuttled off among the water-plants, sometimes huddling close together, a dusky mass 
of bobbing little forms, at others, when closely pressed, separating and diving like 
water-sprites. Overhead, Buzzards were wheeling in graceful, interminable circlings, 
while in their nests upon the tops of some gigantic sycamores, a little back from the 
shore, stood a number of Great Blue Herons, their tall graceful forms boldly outlined 
against the sky. From the lower depths of the forest came innumerable bird voices, — 
the slow, solemn chant of the Wood Thrush, the clear, whistled challenge of the 
1 Nympheza tuberosa. 
