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 P rotonotarius, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. iii. p. '72. 
Sylvia Protonotarius, Bonap. Syn., p. 86. 
Prothonotary Warbler, Sylvia Protonotarius, vol. i. p. 410. 
Prothonotary Warbler, Sylvia Protonotarius , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. 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 
membrane. Head rather small. Neck short. Body rather slender. Feet 
of ordinary length, slender ; tarsus longer than the middle toe, covered 
anteriorly 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 
