BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 32I 



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

 birds, visiting by turns every nook and corner 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 swiftly and quite as silently as a shaft of sunlight, he seizes some 

 hapless victim and scatters the other members of the flock. A little later olive- 

 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-eating Warbler. 



Casual visitor in early autumn — only one valid record. 



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

 bridge Region was shot by Mr. H. M. Spelman on September ig, 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 dry-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 apparently alone. Being unable to get a clear view 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 

 collecting-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 Nuttall Ornithological Club.' ^ 



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 Nashville Warbler's.' "* 



' No. 139, collection of H. M. Spelman. 



2 H. M. Spelman, Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, VI, 18S1, 246. 

 'W. B. O. Peabody, Storer and Peabody, Reports on the Fishes, Reptiles and Birds of Mass- 

 achusetts, 1839, 312. 



'}. A. Allen, American Naturalist, III, 1870, 577. 



