BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER. 183 
NAMES: Worm-EaTING WARBLER, Worm-eater, Worm-eating Swamp Warbler.—Wurmsdnger (German). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Motacilla vermivora Gmel. (1788). Sylvia vermivora Lath. (1811), Wils., Nutt., 
Aud. Helinaia vermivora Aud. (1839), HELMITHERUS VERMIVORUS Bairp (1858). 
DESCRIPTION: Sexes alike. Head, buff or yellowish, with a broad black stripe on each side of the crown, 
and a narrow black stripe behind the eye. Upper parts, plain olive-green. Lower parts, buff. 
Length, 5.50 inches; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.35 inches. 
BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER. 
Helmintophila pinus RIDGWAY. 
PLate XI. Fic. 2. 
Z ‘aaa BEAUTIFUL Warbler inhabits, during the breeding season, the central and, 
probably, also the southern portion of our country, moving north as far as the 
Connecticut valley; in some exceptional cases it has been found even in southern Wis- 
consin and Minnesota. Westward it has been noticed in Kansas and the Indian Terri- 
tory. It arrives in the southern parts of its breeding range late in April, and in the 
more northern localities early in May. It is particularly common in southern Illinois, 
in many parts of Missouri, in southern Indiana and, according to the observations of 
Mr. J. N. Clark, in the lower Connecticut valley. We may look for this bird where 
the brilliant Hooded Warbler has taken up its abode. Thickets of flaming azaleas, 
andromedas, kalmias in woods and on woodland edges, half-cleared fields which have 
grown up to sprouts, rich open bottom-woods, where the ‘‘switch-cane forms a con- 
siderable proportion of the undergrowth,” the BLUE-wINGED YELLOW WARBLER seems 
to prefer for its haunts, being one of the characteristic birds of such localities. This 
bird searches for inseéts in the same way as do the true Wood Warblers (Dendroica). 
Bushes and low trees are diligently explored for food, and orchards are frequently 
visited, especially when the apple trees are, in full bloom. At such times it mounts 
the tops of bushes and fruit trees, uttering its sharp, wiry notes, which sound like 
adr-ree—ar-ree, and have a rising and falling inflection. The song is very similar to 
that of the Grashopper Sparrow. During the time when in southern Missouri the 
orchard trees are in full bloom, I had frequent opportunities to listen to the notes of 
this Warbler. They rarely pursue insects on the wing, seizing only such which live 
on the leaves, in crevices of the bark, and in the blossoms. The bird, as shown on 
Plate XI, rests on a beautiful flower truss of Kalmia latifolia. 
The nest is usually built on the ground, among upright stalks, resting on a thick 
foundation of old leaves. Mr. J. N. Clark of Saybrook, Conn., informs me that he found 
nests on the ground, in sprouts, four inches from the surface, one in a small shrub, 
twelve inches high, and still another one in a wild rose-bush, four feet above the ground. 
Mr. Ridgway, who is better acquainted with the nesting habits of this bird than any 
other ornithologist, found the nests invariably on or near the ground. He described 
