276 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



mains until about the first week in September. It appears from my 

 own observations, as well as from the reports received through various 

 observers, that this species is quite rare, or not found in most of the 

 northern counties, and it also seems to be unknown in the higher mount- 

 ainous districts. I have seen or heard these birds during the summer 

 months in Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Lawrence, Beaver and Washington 

 counties, where I have no doubt they breed sparingly at least. In July, 

 1889, I saw two with young in Clarion county, along the Clarion river. 

 When the apple and pear trees are in blossom these yellow-vested in- 

 sect hunters, singly, or in pairs, frequently visit orchards and gardens, 

 but at other times they rarely, according to my observation, are seen 

 about the habitations of man. They prefer to dwell in sequestered 

 thickets, and bushy places in open woodland, and commonly their sum- 

 mer home is in the vicinity of a swamp or near a stream. Like the 

 Worm-eating Warbler, this species subsists, to a considerable extent, on 

 spiders, larvae and beetles. 



Helminthophila chrysoptera (LraN.). 



Golden-winged "Warbler. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Size about the same as H. pinus. Female very similar to male but duller. Bill 

 (dried skin) black ; legs dark brown. 



Male. Crown and large wing patch (wing-bars) golden-yellow; rest of upper 

 parts slaty-blue ; below white or whitish ; showy stripe on side of head, front and 

 back of eye, and patch on chin, throat and fore part of breast, black the broad eye- 

 stripe is bordered above and below with white ; inner webs of three lateral tail- 

 feathers mostly white ; the sides of body are pale grayish or ashy. 



Habitat. Eastern United States ; Central America in winter. 



The Golden-winged Warbler arrives in Pennsylvania late in April or 

 early in May from its winter home in the tropics. This bird, although 

 a regular migrant both in spring and fall, is one of the group which is 

 regarded as being particularly rare and desirable to the collector. I am 

 inclined to believe that this warbler, occasionally at least, breeds in the 

 western part of our state. July 27, 1889, I saw two of these birds 

 in a swampy piece of woodland along the Allegheny river in Armstrong 

 county, and on the 30th of the same month I killed a male feeding on 

 the ground in a bushy thicket along the Ohio in Beaver county. The 

 late Prof. S. F. Baird obtained one of these warblers in the early part of 

 July in the vicinity of Carlisle, Cumberland county, and Mr. Roddy of 

 Lancaster county, has, he informs me, observed it in summer. When 

 migrating the Golden- wings, like many others of the family, visit or- 

 chards, but usually these warblers are to be found ir thickets or woods. 

 Three of these birds which I have examined had in their stomachs 

 beetles, spiders and larvae. 



