THE WORM-EATING WARBLER. 211 



England ; they having left for the tropical countries of South 

 America, where they spend the winter. 



HELMITHERUS, RAFINESQUE. 



Helmitherus, RAFINESQUE, Journal de Physique, LXXXVIII. (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 VEBMIVORUS. Bonaparte. 

 The Worm-eating Warbler. 



f 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. (1832) 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, tfnged 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 straggler. I have never met with a 

 specimen alive, although it has been taken in all these 

 States. Audubon describes its habits as follows : 



"It 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- 



