90 PROTHONOTARY SWAMP-WARBLER. 



I have observed their arrival in Louisiana to take place, according to the 

 state of the weather, from the middle of March to the first of April. At 

 Henderson, in Kentucky, they do not arrive until a month later. They 

 remain until October, but, I am inclined to believe, rear only a single brood 

 in a season. The nest is fixed in the fork of a small twig bending; over the 

 water, and is constructed of slender grasses, soft mosses, and fine fibrous 

 roots. The number of eggs is from four to six. I could never ascertain 

 whether the male assists in incubation, as the difference of plumage in the 

 sexes is not perceptible when the bird is at large, and indeed can hardly be 

 traced when one has procured the male and the female for comparison. It 

 cannot be called a plentiful species. To search for them on the high lands, 

 or at any considerable distance from the kind of places above mentioned, 

 would prove quite useless. 



Dr. Bachman informs me that he has watched this species for hours at a 

 time, when on the borders of streams, and observed it to seize insects on 

 wing by gliding through the air after them, but never heard it click its bill, 

 as is usual with Flycatchers. It breeds in South Carolina, and he saw a pair 

 with four young ones near Charleston, on the 1st of June 1836. 



The plant on which you see these birds, grows in swampy places, but is 

 extremely rare, and I have not been able to procure any scientific appellation 

 for it. In Louisiana, it is called the cane vine. It bears a small white 

 flower in clusters. The berries are bitter and nauseous. The stem, which 

 runs up and over trees, resembles that of other climbing plants, is extremely 

 elastic, and as tough as a cord. The leaves, of which you see the form and 

 colour, are also tough and thick. 



Prothonotary Warbler. Sylvia Protonotarius, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. iii. p. 72. 

 Sylvia Protonotarius, Bonap. Syn., p. 86. 

 Prothonotary Warbler, Sylvia Protonotarius, vol. i. p. 410. 



Prothonotary Wareler, Sylvia Protonotarius, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 22; vol. v. 

 p. 460. 



Adult Male. 



Bill nearly as long as the head, slender, tapering, nearly straight, as deep 

 as broad at the base. Nostrils basal, lateral, elliptical, half closed by a mem- 

 brane. Head rather small. Neck short. Body rather slender. Feet of 

 ordinary length, slender; tarsus longer than the middle toe, covered ante- 

 riorly with a few scutella, the uppermost long: toes scutellate above, the 

 inner free, the hind toe of moderate size; claws slender, compressed, acute, 

 arched. 



Plumage soft, blended, tufty. Wings of ordinary length, acute, the first 

 and second quills longest. Tail nearly even, of twelve straight, rather 



