WORM-EATING WARBLER. 237 
abundant in the Mississippi and, New Orleans Territories, near the 
river, but are rarely found on the high ridges inland. 
From the peculiar form of its bill, being roundish and remarkably 
pointed, this bird might, with propriety, be classed as a sub-genera, or 
separate family, including several others, viz., the Blue-winged Yellow 
Warbler, the Gold-crowned Warbler, and Golden-winged Warbler, 
represented in No. 68, and the Worm-eating Warbler, No. 113, and a 
few more. The bills of all these correspond nearly in form and point- 
edness, being generally longer, thicker at the base, and more round 
than those of the genus Sylia, generally. The first-mentioned species, 
in particular, greatly resembles this in its general appearance; but the 
bill of the Prothonotary is rather stouter, and the yellow much deeper, 
extending farther on the back; its manners, and the country it in- 
habits, are also different. ‘ 
This species is five inches and a half long, and eight and’a half in 
extent; the head, neck, and whole lower parts, (except the vent,) are 
of a remarkably rich and brilliant yellow, slightly inclining to orange ; 
vent, white ; back, ‘scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, yellow olive ; 
wings, rump, and tail-coverts, a lead blue; interior vanes of the former, 
black ; tail, nearly even, and black, broadly edged with blue; all the 
feathers, except the two middle ones, are marked on their inner vanes, 
near the tip, with a spot of white; bill, long, stout, sharp-pointed, and © 
wholly black ; eyes, dark hazel; legs and feet, a leaden gray. The 
female differs in having the yellow and blue rather of a duller tint; 
the inferiority, however, is scarcely noticeable. 
’ 
So 
# 
‘WORM-EATING WARBLER.—SYLVIA VERMIVORA. — 
Fie. 118. 
Arct. Zool. p. 406, No. 300.— Edw. 305. — Lath. ii. 499.—Le demi-fin mangeur 
de vers, Buff. v. 325.— Peale’s Museum, No. 6848. ° 
VERMIVORA PENNSYLVANICA. —Swainson.* 
Ficedula Pennsylvanica, Briss. i. 457.— Sylvia (sub-genus Dacnis, Cuv.) Pennsyl- 
vanica, Bonup. Synop. p. 86.—The Worm-eating Warbler, Aud. pl. 34, male 
and female; Orn. Biog. i. p. 177, : 
Tus is one of the nimblest species of its whole family, inhabiting 
the same country with the preceding, but extending its migrations 
much farther north. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the middle of 
May, and leaves us in September. I have never yet met with its nest, 
but have seen them feeding their young about the 25th of June. This 
bird is remarkably fond of spiders, darting about wherever there is a 
probability of finding these insects. If there be a branch broken, and 
the leaves withered, it shoots among them in preference to every other 
} 
* This specics is the type of Mr. Swainson’s genus Vermivora. The specific 
title is eon lost, and I see none better than the restoration of Brisson’s old 
one. — LD. 
« 
Pas 
