THE WORM-EATING WARBLER. 211 
England ; they having left for the tropical countries of South 
America, where they spend the winter. 
HELMITHERUS, RaArrinesque. 
Helmitherus, RAFINESQUE, Journal de Physique, LX XXVIII. (1819) 417. (Type 
Motacilla vermivora.) ; 
Bill large and stout, compressed, almost tanagrine; nearly or quite as long as the 
head; culmen very slightly curved; gonys straight; no notch in the bill; rictal 
bristles wanting; 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 third. 
HELMITHERUS VERMIVORUS. — Bonaparte. 
The Worm-eating Warbler. 
? Motacilla vermivora, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 951. 
Sylvia vermivora, Wilson. Am. Orn., III. (1811) 74. Aud. Orn. Biog., I. (1832) 
177. 
Sylvia (Dacnis) vermivora, Nuttall. Man., I. (1882) 409. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Bill nearly as long as the head; upper parts generally rather clear olive-green; 
head with four black stripes and three brownish-yellow ones, namely, a black one 
on each side of the crown, and one from behind the eye (extending, in fact, a little 
anterior to it), a broader median yellow one on the crown, and a superciliary from 
the bill; under parts pale brownish-yellow, tinged with buff across the breast, and 
with olivaceous on the sides; tail unspotted. Female nearly similar. 
Length, five and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, three; tail, two and thirty- 
five one-hundredths inches. 
This species is so rarely seen in New England, that it can 
be regarded only as a strageler. I have never met with a 
specimen alive, although it has been taken in all these 
States. Audubon describes its habits as follows : — 
‘Tt is an inhabitant of the interior of the forests, and is seldom 
found on the borders of roads or in the fields. In spring, they 
move in pairs; and, during their retrograde marches, in little 
groups, consisting each of a family, seven or eight in number: 
on which account I am inclined to believe that they raise only a 
single brood in the year. They are ever amongst the decayed 
branches of trees or other plants, such as are accidentally broken 
off by the wind, and are there seen searching for insects or cater- 
