74 



WORM-EATING WARBLER. 



SYLVIA VERMIVORA. 

 [Plate XXIV.— Fig. 4.] 



Arct. Zool. p. 406, No. 300. — Edw ards, 305. — Latham, II, 499. — Le Dejni-Jin ?nangeur 

 de vers, Buffon, V, 325. — Peale's Museum, JVo. 6848. 



THIS is one of the nimblest species of its whole family, in- 

 habiting 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 twenty-fifth of June. This bird is remarkably fond of spiders, 

 darting about wherever there is a probability of finding these in- 

 sects. If there be a branch broken and the leaves withered, it 

 shoots among them in preference to every other part of the tree, 

 making a great rustling in search of its prey. I have often watch- 

 ed its manoeuvres while thus engaged and flying from tree to tree 

 in search of such places. On dissection I have uniformly found 

 their stomachs filled with spiders or caterpillars, or both. Its note 

 is a feeble chirp, rarely uttered. 



The Worm-eater is five inches and a quarter in length, and 

 eight inches in extent; back, tail, and wings a fine clear olive; 

 tips and inner vanes of the wing quills a dusky brown ; tail slight- 

 ly forked, yet the exterior feathers are somewhat shorter than the 

 middle ones; head and whole lower parts a dirty buff; the for- 

 mer marked with four streaks of black, one passing from each nos- 

 tril, broadening as it descends the hind head; and one from the 

 posterior angle of each eye ; the bill is stout, straight, pretty thick 

 at the base, roundish and tapering to a fine point; no bristles at 



