90 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
of ‘‘tsee-dee-dee,” and a song which has been variously de- 
scribed, but which, from all accounts, does not seem to be a 
very pleasing one. 
I regret that I am obliged to write brief, and on that account 
less interesting biographies (if I may so far flatter myself) of 
some of the warblers, about whom, because of their general 
rarity here, I know little and cannot obtain much information. 
V. PROTONOTARIA 
(A) cirraa. Prothonotary Warbler. 
(So far as I know, there is but one authentic instance of this 
bird being captured in New England — then at Calais, Maine, 
on October 80th !). 
(a). About 53 inches long. Golden-yellow. Back oliva- 
ceous. Rump, light ashy-blue; wings and tail darker. Tail- 
feathers marked with white. 
(0). Dr. Brewer speaks of three nests. One of these ‘“‘ was 
built within a Woodpecker’s hole in a stump of a tree, not more 
than three feet high;” another “was built within a brace-hole 
in a mill;” and a third ‘in a hollow snag, about five feet from 
the ground, in the river bottom.” The eggs average ‘68 & 55 
of an inch, and are cream-white with lilac, purplish-brown (and 
black) markings. 
(c). The Prothonotary Warbler have little or no right to be 
included in the list of the birds of Massachusetts, and I have 
never seen them here (unless perhaps once a pair, at dark in 
October). They prefer the borders of streams, and neighbor- 
hood of water, to drier ground, and swampy thickets to the 
woods and forests. Otherwise their habits are essentially like 
those of the Worm-eating Warbler, and other allied species. 
(d). Their ordinary note is said to be like the feeble tsip of 
the White-throated Sparrow, but of more characteristic notes I 
know nothing. The “ Prothonotaries” strongly resemble the 
Blue-winged. Yellow Warblers, who are much more likely to oc- 
cur in southern New England, and therefore should an inex- 
perienced student meet either in his rambles through this State, 
let him carefully note which it is. 
