48 WORM-EATING WARBLER > v 



Genus HELMITHEROS Rafinesque 



Helmitheros is chiefly distinguished by its stout bill, which, in 

 proportion to the size of the bird, is more robust than in any other 

 genus of this family, except Chamcethlypis; the ridge of the culmen 

 is curved, its base is decidedly ridged and intrudes upon the feathers 

 of the forehead; the bill is unnotched; rictal bristles not evident. 

 The wing is rather pointed, about .80 inches longer than the tail ; the 

 three outer primaries are of nearly equal length; the tail is rather 

 short, the feathers of about equal length, obtusely, but decidedly 

 pointed ; the under tail-coverts are long, reaching to within nearly .50 

 inches of the end of the tail. The feet are well developed, the tarsus 

 about equalling in length the middle-toe and nail. 



In Helmitheros verniivorus, the single species contained in this 

 genus, the sexes are alike in color. 



Worm-eating Warbler 



HELMITHEROS VERMIVORUS (Gmel.) Pitt* IV 



Distinguishing Characters. — Head conspicuously striped with black and 

 olive-buff; no white bars or patches; sexes alike. Length (skin), 4.80; wing. 

 2.80; tail, 1.90; bill, .50. 



~ Adult c?. Spring. — Crown with a broad median olive-buff stripe separated 

 from stripes over the eyes, of the same color, by broad stripes of black; a 

 well-marked black or blackish post-ocular stripe, lores sometimes dusky; back, 

 olive-green ; tail olive-green without white ; wings like back, without white, 

 the bend yellowish ; underparts cream-buff, belly, and sometimes throat, whiter. 



Adult (^, Fall. — Similar to last but buffy areas averaging slightly deeper. 



Young ^, Fall. — Similar to adult c? in Fall, but tertials lightly tipped with 

 rusty. 



Adult 5, Spring. — Similar to adult c? in Spring. 



Adult 2, Fall. — Similar to adult d" in Fall. 



Young $, Fall. — Similar to young c^. 



Nestling. — Buffy-cinnamon ; head stripes duskier, wing-quills as in young 

 (^ and $, wing-coverts like back, their bases grayer. 



General Distribution. — Eastern United States ; north to southern 

 New England and Nebraska; west almost to the Plains. 



Summer Range. — Common in the heavily timbered bottom lands 

 of Southern Illinois and Indiana and eastward to the lower portions 

 of the valleys of the Hudson and Connecticut rivers. It is not uncom- 

 mon in the lower parts of the Allegheny Mountains from north- 

 western South Carolina to southern New York, and from the Dismal 

 Swamp of Virginia northward. Outside of this usual range it has 

 been taken in Vermont (St. Albans, 1891). Massachusetts (East- 

 hampton, Cambridge, September 19. 1881, Taunton, May 9, 1890) ; 



