LAND BIRDS. 581 
is white, and without streaks. The adult female is similar to the young male, but the 
markings not so sharp or strong, and the sides are usually washed with brownish. 
Length 4.55 to 5.50 inches; wing 2.60 to 2.90; tail 1.95 to 2.25. 
262. Prothonotary Warbler. Protonotaria citrea (Bodd.). (637) 
Synonyms: Golden Warbler, Golden Swamp Warbler, Willow Warbler.—Motacilla 
citrea, Boddaert, 1783.—Helminthophaga citrea, Cab., 1861.—Sylvia protonotarius, 
Vieill., Wils., Bonap., Nutt., Aud.—Protonotaria citrea, Baird, 1859, and most subsequent 
authors. 
Entire head, neck and under parts rich yellow or orange without streaks; 
tail with big white patches, no wing-bars. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States, west to Nebraska and Kansas, 
north to Virginia, southern Michigan and Iowa, casually to New England, 
Ontario, and Minnesota; in winter, Cuba and Northern South America. 
Breeds throughout its United States range. 
This bird reaches the northern limit of its range in Michigan and appears 
to be confined almost or quite to the southern portions of the state. Ordi- 
narily it is a rare bird and is met with singly or in small colonies here and 
there in the overflowed swamps which are its peculiar habitat. In only 
two localities in the state, so far as we are aware, has it been recorded as 
abundant. Mr. H. W. McBride states that it was found abundantly 
along the St. Joseph River in Motville township, St. Joseph county, Mich- 
igan, and for a distance of three and one-half to four miles along the river 
from White Pigeon was to be seen or heard all the time. This was in May 
1891 (Butler, Birds of Indiana, 1897, pp. 1022-1023). During the summer 
of 1907, E. R. Kalmbach and H. A. Moorman, while on a canoe trip down 
the Grand River, found this beautiful warbler in numbers at certain favor- 
able places in Jackson and Ingham counties, and in lesser numbers as far 
as Dimondale, Eaton county. This was between June 17 and July 1, 
and nests containing eggs were not uncommon, although others contained 
young. 
A. B. Covert and N. A. Wood of Ann Arbor found a pair breeding in 
the dense swamp in Lyons township, Oakland county, May 8,1896, and 
the nest and female are now in the Museum of the University of Michigan 
at Ann Arbor. A single specimen was noted at Grosse Pointe Farms, 
Wayne county, May 9, 1903, by A. B. Covert and A. W. Blain, and a female 
was found dead under an electric light tower in Grand Rapids, Kent county, 
May 13, 1905, the skin being now in the possession of H. A. Moorman. 
In the summer of 1905 a pair of these birds occupied a mailbox or letterbox 
fastened to a veranda post of residence No. 35 Coldwater St., Kalamazoo. 
They began nesting in the box on May 19 and five young were reared. 
The occupant of the house, Mrs. C. A. Pierre, furnished Mr. P. A. Taverner 
with a full account of the nesting and he also examined the nest. The 
Kalamazoo River, bordered by a fringe of willows, flows within a few rods 
of the back of the house. 
During the summer of 1906 a pair nested in a woodpecker’s hole in a 
small tree standing in water caused by an overflow of the Grand River 
about four miles north of Jackson, Jackson county. Mrs. Robert Campbell, 
of Jackson, first saw them on May 29, and again occasionally until the 
young left the nest. She says: ‘‘The song is loud and well sustained, 
but not long or rythmically well marked enough for one to want to put 
words to it. The Yellow Warbler, Northern Yellowthroat and Warbling 
