WORM-EATING WARBLER 39 



The distribution, migration, and habits of this warbler were but 

 poorly understood by the early writers on American birds, and neither 

 Wilson nor Audubon ever saw its nest ; the latter's description of the 

 nest, probably from hearsay, is entirely wrong. Frank L. Burns 

 writes to me: "Bartram neglected to list this species, although he had 

 furnished the type to Edwards 35 years earlier, and from the informa- 

 tion furnished by the youthful Bartram it doubtless received its name, 

 which is a misnomer perpetuated by Gmelin in his Motacilla vermiv- 

 oraP Mr. Burns says further on in his notes: "I searched for 10 

 seasons before I found my first nest, and oddly enough it was through 

 the parent bird carrying a 'worm' to its young; nevertheless I have 

 since thought that a more fitting name for the species would have been 

 hillside or laurel warbler." 



Hillside warbler would not be a bad name for this bird, which shows 

 a decided preference for wooded hillsides covered with medium-sized 

 deciduous trees and an undergrowth of saplings and small shrubbery. 

 Often a running stream with numerous swampy places, overgrown 

 with brier tangles and alders, bounds the base of the hill as an addi- 

 tional attraction. It is seldom seen outside of its favorite woods and 

 returns year after year to the same chosen haunts. 



W. E. Clyde Todd (1940) says that in western Pennsylvania 

 "wooded slopes are its chosen abodes, the shadier and cooler the better. 

 * * * Deep ravines, down which trickle little streams, and the 

 slopes of which support good stands of deciduous trees, with plenty 

 of shrubbery and bushes for cover, are favorite resorts." In Ritchie 

 County, W. Va., William Brewster (1875) found it "most partial to 

 the retired thickets in the woods along water courses, and seldom or 

 never found in the high open groves." 



Spring. — The northward movement of the worm-eating warbler 

 evidently begins in March, as the earliest arrivals from the Bahamas, 

 the West Indies, and Cuba reach southern Florida during the first 

 week in April. From its main winter resorts in Central America the 

 flight seems to be partially across the Gulf of Mexico. Professor Cooke 

 (1904) says in part: "The time of arrival on the coasts of Louisiana 

 and Texas is about the same as in southern Florida. * * * Hous- 

 ton is the southernmost point in Texas from which it has been recorded 

 to date, and Alta Mira is the northernmost point of record in Mexico. 

 Since the species is apparently not common west of Louisana or 

 north of Vera Cruz, it is probable that the principal line of migration 

 is from Yucatan and the coast immediately west of Yucatan directly 

 north to the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico." According to 

 Williams (1945) the species is common on the coast of Texas in spring, 

 and it probably migrates along the coast. Thence the migration pro- 



