BIRDS OF KANSAS. . 539 



and even bits of soft, rotten wood, interwoven with fine rootlets, 

 and lined with hairs. Eggs usually five or six (as high as eight 

 have been taken), .68x. 56; creamy white, thickly spotted with 

 lilac, purple and dark reddish brown, thickest and often conflu- 

 ent at larger end; in form, rounded oval. 



Genus HELMITHERUS Rafinesque. 

 "Bill large and stout, compressed, almost tanagrine; nearly or quite as long 

 as the head. Culmen very slightly curved; gouys straight; no notch in the bill; 

 rectal bristles vranting; tarsi short — but little longer, if any, than the middle 

 toe; tail considerably shorter than the wings, rather rounded; wings rather long, 

 the first quill a little shorter than the second and thiid." 



Helmitherus vermivorus (Gmel.). 



WORM-EATING WARBLER. 

 PLATE XXXI. 



Summer resident in the eastern part of the State; rare. Arrive 

 the last of April; begin laying the last of May; leave the last 

 of August to middle of September. 



B. 178. R. 77. C. 96. G. 34, 273. U. 639. 



Habitat. Eastern United States; north to southern New Eng- 

 land, the great lakes and Iowa, chiefly south of latitude 40°; 

 west to eastern Nebraska and Texas; south in winter to Cuba, 

 Jamaica, and southern Central America. Breeds throughout 

 most of its United States range. 



Sp. Char. Adult {sexes alike) : Head buff, with a broad black stripe on each 

 side of the crown (from nostrils to occiput), and a narrower black stripe behind 

 the eye, along upper edge of the aurlculars, continued more or less distinctly at 

 the anterior angle of the eye; upper parts plain olive green; lower parts buff, 

 paler on chin, throat, abdomen and crissum, where sometimes almost white. 

 Young, first plumage: Head, neck and lower parts deep buff, the black stripes 

 of the adult merely indicated by indistinct stripes of dull brown; back, scapu- 

 lars, rump and wing coverts dull light brown, tinged with cinnamon, the greater 

 coverts passing into deep buff terminally; remiges and rectrices olive green, as 

 in the adult. The buff of head stripes, etc., is deeper in autumnal specimens. 

 {Ridgway.) 



Iris dark brown; bill — upper blackish brown, under pale; 

 legs, feet and claws brownish flesh color. 



