BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGIOK. 32 1 



Thus they wander and drift from place to place, the social, care-free little 

 birds, \-isiting by turns ever)' nook and comer of the wood and enlivening even 

 its darkest and gloomiest recesses by their animated movements, bright plumage 

 and joyous calls. Their revels are often interrupted, however, by that self- 

 appointed messenger of death, the Sharp-shinned Hawk. Glancing through the 

 trees almost as swiftl}" and quite as silently as a shaft of sunlight, he seizes some 

 hapless \ictim and scatters the other members of the flock. A little later oUve- 

 green and yellow feathers drift from the pine or oak where the Hawk has set- 

 tled to devour his prey. 



195. Helmitheros vermivorus (Gmel.). 



WORM-EATIKG WaRBLER. 



Casual visitor in early autnmn — only one valid record. 



The only Worm-eating Warbler knowTi to have been found in the Cam- 

 bridge Region was shot by Mr. H. M. Spelman on September 19, 1 881, in some 

 swampy maple woods which then extended (they were cut down about sixteen 

 years later) along the south bank of Little River from Beech Island nearly to 

 the outlet of Smith's Pond. Although often inundated in spring, this swamp 

 could usually be traversed dr)-shod in early autumn, when it attracted a great 

 number and variety of birds. Mr. Spelman tells me that he met with the 

 Worm-eating Warbler near its eastern borders. The bird was in a dense 

 thicket and apparentlj' alone. Being unable to get a clear \-iew of it, he began 

 ' screeping,' when it approached him within a few yards, climbing and flitting 

 among the stems of some low bushes where it offered an easy mark for his 

 coUecting-pistol. The specimen, a female ^ in perfect autumn plumage, is pre- 

 served in his collection. It was originally reported by him in the ' Bulletin of 

 the XuttaU Ornithological Qub.' ^ 



There is an ancient and now nearly forgotten record by Peabody,' of a sup- 

 posed nest of the Worm-eating Warbler which " was discovered in Cambridge 

 by Mr. Rotch, who gave a specimen of the eggs to Dr. Brewer." Dr. Allen, 

 however, was afterwards " informed by Dr. Brewer that the nest referred to by 

 Mr. Peabody . . . . ' was, without doubt, a Nash\Tlle Warbler's.' " * 



' No. 139, collection of H. H. Spefanan. 



- H. iL Spelman, Bulletin of the Xattall Oniitfaological Onb, YI, 1881, 246. 

 ^ W. B. O. Peabody, Storer and Peabody, Kepmts oa the Ftsh^ Rqitiles and Birds of >fass- 

 achosetts, 1839, 312. 



*]. A. ADen, Ameiican Nataiafist, III, 1870, 577. 



