( 460 ) 



WORM-EATING WARBLER. 



Sylvia vermivora, Lath. 



PLATE XXXIV. Vol. I. p. 177. 



According to Dr Richardson, this species visits the Fur Coun- 

 tries, where a single specimen was procured at Cumberland House, on 

 the banks of the Saskatchewan. It is found in the State of Maine, 

 and in the British Provinces of New Bruns^vick and Nova Scotia, but 

 I did not meet with it farther eastward. None were seen on the Rocky 

 Mountains, or about the Columbia River by Dr Townsend. My friend 

 Dr Bachman says that it breeds sparingly in the swamps of Carolina. 

 He observed a pair followed by three or four young ones nearly fledged, 

 all of which already exhibited the markings on the head. 



The eggs of this species measure five and a half eighths of an inch 

 in length, and half an inch in breadth ; the smaller end is rather rounded; 

 its colour and markings as already described, though I have seen some 

 more copiously marked than others, and the cream-colour of their ground 

 tinged with a rosy hue. 



The roof of the mouth is flat and slightly arched, posteriorly with 

 two ridges, anteriorly with a middle prominent and two very slight la- 

 teral ridges ; its width 3^ twelfths. The tongue is 5 twelfths long, 

 emarginate and papillate at the base, narrow, tapering, thin, concave 

 above, the tip rather abrupt, and terminated by several stifiish bristles, 

 like that of a Titmouse. The oesophagus is 1 inch 9 twelfths long, its 

 greatest width 3 twelfths. The stomach is small, elliptical, 5^ twelfths 

 long, 4^ twelfths in breadth ; the lateral muscles moderate, the lower 

 very thin ; the epithelium longitudinally rugous. The stomach is filled 

 with insects. The intestine is 5j inches long, from 1^ twelfth to 1 

 twelfth in width. The coeca are 1^ twelfth long, and \ twelfth wide ; 

 their distance from the extremity 7 twelfths. 



The trachea is 1 inch 7 twelfths long, flattened, 1 twelfth broad 

 at the upper part ; the rings about 70, moderately firm ; bronchial half 

 rings about 15 ; the muscles as usual. 



'ii 



