SPECIES 23. SYLVIA VERMIVORA. 
WORM-EATING WARBLER. 
[Plate XXIV.— Fig. 4.] 
Jirct. Zool. p. 406, JVo. 300. — Edwards, 305. — Latham, ii, 499. 
—Le Demi-jin mangeur de vers, Buffon, v, 325. — Peale’s 
Museum, J^o. 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 insects. 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 watched its manoeuvres while thus engaged 
and flying from tree to tree in search of such places. On dis- 
section I have uniformly found their stomachs filled with spi- 
ders 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 
former marked with four streaks of black, one passing from 
each nostril, 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 the side of the mouth; tongue thin, and lacerated 
