WARBLERS. 89 



pure white, minutely spotted with reddish brown, chiefly at the 

 larger end, where lilac is intermixed. 



c. The Worm-eating Warblers so seldom come to this State 

 that, I regret to say, I have never seen them here. The vari- 

 ous accounts of their habits and notes which I have read are 

 more or less conflicting and unsatisfactory; but from them 

 I have gathered that the Worm-eating Warblers inhabit both 

 woodland and shrubbery, and usually feed on caterpillars and 

 spiders, which they find on the ground, or " among the dead 

 leaves of a broken branch," being very nimble in securing 

 their prey. They are never gregarious, but, even during their 

 migrations, travel alone or in pairs, sometimes, however, with 

 their young in autumn. 



d. Their notes are " a feeble chirp," a " complaining call " 

 of " tsee-dee-dee" and a song which has been variously de- 

 scribed, but which, from all accounts, does not seem to be a 

 very pleasing one. 



I regret that I am obliged to write brief, and on that ac- 

 count less interesting, biographies (if I may so far flatter my- 

 self) of some of the Warblers, about whom, because of their 

 general rarity here, I know little, and cannot obtain much in- 

 formation. 



V. PROTONOTARIA. 



A. CITREA. Prothonotary Warbler. So far as I know 

 there is but one authentic instance of this bird being captured 

 in New England then at Calais, Maine, on October 30th ! * 



a. About 5J inches long. Golden yellow. Back, oliva- 

 ceous. Rump, light ashy blue ; wings and tail, darker. Tail- 

 feathers, marked with white. 



b. Dr. Brewer speaks of three nests. One of these " was 

 built within a Woodpecker's hole in a stump of a tree, not 



* Since the above was written, a num- near Auburndale, Massachusetts, June 



ber of Prothonotary Warblers have been 20, 1890. As this bird was seen in the 



taken in southern New England. Most same place on the previous day, and a 



of them have occurred during 1 the mi- it was in full song on both occasions, 



grations, in May or August, but there are some grounds for suspecting 



Mr. F. H. Kennard has a male which that it was breeding, although no proof 



was shot on the banks of Charles River, of this was actually obtained. W. B. 



