_Motacilla vermivora_, GMEL. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 951. ? _Sylvia
vermivora_, LATH. Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 499.—WILS. III, pl. xxiv,
fig. 4.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xxxiv. _Sylvicola vermivora_,
RICH. _Helinaia vermivora_, AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cv.—LEMBEYE,
Av. Cuba, 1850, 35, pl. vi, fig. 4. _Helmitherus vermivorus_,
BON.; CAB.; BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 252; Rev. 179.—SCLATER, P.
Z. S. 1859, 363 (Xalapa).—IB. Catal. 1861, 28, no. 175.—SCLATER
& SALVIN, Ibis, I, 1859, 11 (Guatemala); Cab. Jour. 1860, 329
(Costa Rica); IB. 1856 (Cuba).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326
(Cuba; somewhat rare). _Vermivora pennsylvanica_, BON., GOSSE, B.
Jamaica, 1847, 150. _Helmitherus migratorius_, RAF. J. de Phys.
88, 1819, 417.—HARTLAUB; _Vermivora fulvicapilla_, SWAINSON,
Birds, II, 1837, 245.
SP. CHAR. Bill nearly as long as the head; upper parts generally
rather clear olive-green. Head with four black stripes and three
brownish-yellow ones, namely, a black one on each side of the crown
and one from behind the eye (extending, in fact, a little anterior to
it), a broader median yellow one on the crown, and a superciliary from
the bill. Under parts pale brownish-yellow; tinged with buff across
the breast and with olivaceous on the sides. Tail unspotted. Female
nearly similar. Length, 5.50; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.35.
In autumnal specimens the light stripes on the head are deeper buff
than in spring.
HAB. Eastern Province of United States (rather Southern); Southeastern
Mexico; Guatemala; Cuba; Costa Rica; Veragua; Orizaba (winter,
SUMICHRAST); Yucatan (LAWRENCE).
HABITS. Much remains to be ascertained in regard to the history,
habits, and distribution of this interesting species. So far as is now
known it is hardly anywhere very common during the breeding-season.
Yet its abundance and wide distribution as a migrant during the winter
months in various extended localities appear to warrant the belief
that it must be correspondingly abundant in summer in localities that
have escaped our attention. It has been occasionally met with in the
Central and Southern States, as far west as Eastern Mexico, and as far
to the north as Southeastern New York. Specimens have been procured
from Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and the northern portions of South
America. It is a regular winter visitant of Jamaica, whither it goes
in the autumn in considerable numbers, and is very widely diffused.
It reaches Pennsylvania about the middle of May, and leaves in
September. Wilson noticed a pair feeding their young about the 25th of
June. He supposed this bird to have a more northern distribution than
belongs to it. In the interior they are met with, according to
Audubon, as far north as the southern shores of Lake Erie, where he
found them in the autumn. Mr. Audubon found them more numerous in New
Jersey than anywhere else. In Ohio and Kentucky they are comparatively
rare. Mr. Ridgway informs me that this is a rather common species in
Southern Illinois in the thickest damp woods in the bottom-lands along
the Wabash River.
According to Wilson, these birds are among the nimblest of its family,
and are remarkably fond of spiders, darting about wherever there is a
probability of finding these insects. Where branches are broken and
the leaves withered, it searches among them in preference, making a
great rustling as it hunts for its prey. Their stomachs are generally
found full of spiders and caterpillars.
These birds are arboreal in their preferences, residing in the
interior of woods, and are seldom seen in the open fields. They resort
to the ground and turn over the dry leaves in quest of insects. They
are very unsuspicious and easy of approach.
Nuttall describes their notes and their habits as resembling the
common _Parus atricapillus_, and remarks that they are constantly
uttering a complaining call, sounding like _tshe-dē-dē_.
Until quite recently, nothing has been positively known in regard to
its nesting. Audubon has described its nest as made of dry mosses and
the fallen bloom of the hickory and the chestnut, and as built in
bushes several feet from the ground. He describes the eggs as
cream-colored, marked about the larger end with reddish-brown. These
descriptions have not been confirmed, and all our information has led
us to look for its nest on the ground.
Mr. Trippe states that it is found, but is not at all common, near
Orange, N.Y., where it arrives about the middle of May. It has, at
that time, a rapid, chattering note, and it always, he says, keeps
near the ground, and, besides its chattering song, has in June a
series of odd notes, much like those of the White-breasted Nuthatch,
but more varied and musical, yet hardly entitled to be called a song.
Mr. T. H. Jackson of Westchester, Penn., in the American Naturalist
for December, 1869, mentions finding the nest and eggs of this bird.
We give his account in his own words: “On the 6th of June, 1869, I
found a nest of this species containing five eggs. It was placed in a
hollow on the ground, much like the nests of the Oven-Bird (_Seiurus
aurocapillus_), and was hidden from sight by the dry leaves that lay
thickly around. The nest was composed externally of dead leaves,
mostly those of the beech, while the interior was prettily lined with
the fine, thread-like stalks of the hair-moss, (_Polytrichium_).
Altogether it was a very neat structure, and looked to me as though
the owner was habitually a ground nester. The eggs most nearly
resemble those of the White-bellied Nuthatch (_Sitta carolinensis_),
though the markings are fewer and less distinct. So close did the
female sit that I captured her without difficulty by placing my hat
over the nest.”
The same observing ornithologist informs me that this Warbler arrives
in Pennsylvania early in May, and makes the most solitary part of the
woods its home, outside of which it is rarely seen. True to its name,
it is ever busy hunting out and devouring the worms that lurk among
the forest foliage, pursuing its avocation in silence, with the
exception of a faint note uttered occasionally. This species is not as
shy as many of our Warblers that frequent the woods. Towards the
latter part of May they commence constructing their nests. Mr. Jackson
adds that the nest above referred to was found on a thickly wooded
hillside, a few yards above a running stream. So neatly was it
embedded in the ground and covered with dry leaves, that discovery
would have been impossible had not the female betrayed its position.
Both birds exhibited the greatest alarm at his presence, but on his
retiring to a short distance the female returned to the nest, where
she was easily captured. The base and periphery of the nest were
composed of dry beech-leaves, while the inner lining was made of fine
hair-mosses (_Polytrichium_).
In the latter part of June, 1871, Mr. Jackson found another nest of
this species, containing five young birds about half grown. He was
seated on a log, resting after a hard tramp, when a Worm-eating
Warbler alighted near him, having a large green worm in its beak.
After at first manifesting much uneasiness, and scolding as well as
she could, she suddenly became silent and flew to the ground. On his
going to the spot both parents flew from the nest. It was in all
respects, in regard to materials, manner of construction, and
situation, the exact counterpart of the other. Both were placed on
steep, wooded hillsides, facing the east.
Two of the eggs of this Warbler thus identified by Mr. Jackson, and
kindly loaned to me by him, are of a somewhat rounded-oval shape, less
obtuse at one end. They have a clear, crystal-white ground, and are
spotted with minute dottings of a bright red-brown. These are much
more numerous in one than in the other, and in both are confluent at
the larger end, where they are beautifully intermingled with cloudings
of lilac-brown. These eggs measure, the one .78 by .60 of an inch; the
other, .70 by .56 of an inch.
Another nest of this species, found by Mr. Joseph H. Batty of New
York, on the side of a hill near Montclair, N.J., was also built on
the ground, in a part of the woods where there was no underbrush, and
was placed in a slight hollow, with dry oak-leaves collected around
it, and partly covering it. The nest was made of dry leaves, and lined
with grasses and fine roots. It contained four eggs, alike in their
marking, and corresponding exactly with those obtained by Mr. Jackson.
Mr. Batty nearly stepped on the bird without her leaving the nest.
Dr. Coues found the Worm-eating Warbler a rather uncommon summer
resident near Washington, breeding there but sparingly. It arrives
there during the first week in May, and remains until the third week
in September. He describes it as slow and sedate in its movements.
Helmitherus swainsoni, AUD.