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OUR SOUTHERN BIRDS 



The instant he sees you he is gone, to watch 

 you from a distant log or low bush until you 

 leave. He is always in nervous motion, con- 

 stantly tilting and weaving his body, so that he 



has been sometimes called 

 the Water Wagtail. 



PROTHONOTARY 

 WARBLER 



Boys who paddle about 

 in canoes or pirogues are 

 likely to see this exquisite 

 bird at home, its deep 

 golden head and neck 

 gleaming like a flower 

 from the dense shadows 

 of trees that overhang 

 the water. Its nest is 

 made by partly filling a 

 hollow stub with moss, 

 leaves, and grasses, and hollowing out the top of 

 the moss to receive the five or six speckled eggs. 

 A dead tree leaning over a stream or pond shore 

 may contain several nests of this bird, with those 

 of the Chickadee and the Downy Woodpecker at 

 the same time, though the last two do not show 

 the same preference for willow trees and water. 

 In the marshes of Georgia, and less commonly 

 throughout the South in cane brakes and green 



LOUISIANA 

 WATER THRUSH 

 Length 6^ inches 



