Brewster on the Prothonotary Warbler. 155 
broken, and among all the gay revellers none were more conspic 
nous than the beautiful Prothonotaries. Day by day their numbers 
rapidly increased, until by April 27 all had apparently arrived. 
We now found the Prothonotary Warbler to be, in all suitable 
localities, one of the most abundant and characteristic species. 
Along the shores of the rivers and creeks generally, wherever the 
black willow (Salix niger) grew, a few pairs were sure to be found. 
Among the button-bushes ( Cepkalanthus occidentalis ) that fringed 
the margin of the peculiar long narrow ponds scattered at frequent 
intervals over the heavily timbered bottoms of the Wabash and 
White Rivers, they also occurred more or less numerously. Potoka 
Creek, a winding, sluggish stream, thickly fringed with willows, was 
also a favorite resort ; but the grand rendezvous of the species seemed 
to be about the shores of certain secluded ponds lying in what is 
known as the Little Cypress Swamp. Here they congregated in 
astonishing numbers, and early in May were breeding almost in colo- 
nies. In the region above indicated two things were found to be 
essential to their presence, namely, an abundance of willows and 
the immediate proximity of water. Thickets of button-bushes did 
indeed satisfy a few scattered and perhaps not over particular in- 
dividuals and pairs, but away from water they were almost never 
seen. So marked was this preference, that the song of the male 
heard from the woods indicated to us as surely the proximity of 
some river, pond, or flooded swamp, as did the croaking of frogs or 
the peep of the Hylas. In rare instances, it is true, nests were found 
several hundred yards away from any water ; but such apparent ex- 
ceptions were in nearly every case explained by unmistakable indi- 
cations that the place, or its immediate vicinity, had been, flooded 
earlier in the season, probably at the time when the site was selected 
and the nest built. Owing to the exceeding variability of the water- 
level in the Western rivers, it is not at all improbable that whole 
tracts of country where these birds breed may be sometimes left 
high and dry by the receding element before the eggs are hatched. 
Everywhere now, from the willow thickets along the streams and 
the button-bushes on the pond edges came the songs of numerous 
males, and occasionally one would appear among the foliage or 
glance across the open water like a ray of golden light. Little idea 
can be had from preserved specimens of the wonderful beauty and 
brilliancy of this bird’s plumage when alive. Although at times 
somewhat hard to discover among the yellowish green of their favor- 
