374 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



underwoods, where a cliipping sparrow is never found, remind 

 the ornithologist that he is on the edge of the Carolinian zone, 

 for these and the handsome Kentucky warbler find their breeding 

 limit on the northern confines of this fauna. 



One of the most characteristic birds of this region, and yet 

 one of the most unfamiliar, is the curious barn owl, which makes 

 its home in certain low tracts of woodland south of Philadelphia. 

 Those of us who were brought up on the transatlantic story books 

 of a generation ago know this bird as the strange-faced " staring 

 owl" of our childish fancies. The barn owl of this country is 

 only a geographical race of this long familiar owl of the English 

 towers and belfries. 



The turkey buzzard, though frequently observed as far north 

 as southern New England, is never found abundantly beyond the 

 Carolinian fauna. It nests among the rocks, often in communities 

 of considerable size, in southern Pennsylvania, and winters in 

 southern New Jersey. Almost any day from April to November 

 numbers of turkey buzzards may be seen in the neighborhood of 

 Philadelphia, soaring on motionless wing, often at a great height, 

 or gathering in large flocks over the woods to feast on the carcass 

 of some animal. Farther south, especially toward the coast, the 

 turkey buzzard becomes less abundant where the black vulture or 

 carrion crow, a closely related species that scarcely ever occurs 

 north of Charleston, takes its place. 



A notable mammal of the southern realm is at home in the 

 woodland tracts of this region. The opossum is quite as abun- 

 dant along the northern edge of the Carolinian fauna in south- 

 eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey as it is farther south, 

 but is rarely found north of this locality on the Atlantic sea- 

 board. Its nocturnal habits preclude it from ordinary observa- 

 tion, and only in the autumn and early winter, when tempted into 

 some rabbit snare or caught in its predatory midnight rambles 

 and its fat body swings before the market door, are we aware 

 that this curious marsupial dwells in our midst. From the Dela- 

 ware southward a fat " 'possum " is the delight of the darkey, and 

 most toothsome is it indeed if caught in a persimmon tree after 

 feeding on the frost-ripened fruit. A less common mammal is the 

 little gray fox, which formerly was much more abundant on the 

 northern range of the Carolinian fauna than it is at the present 

 day. The gray fox must be the " Brer Fox " of Uncle Remus, for 

 the more familiar and larger red fox of the Northern States does 

 not range far beyond the limits of the transition zone. The red 

 fox is now the most abundant species in southeastern Pennsylva- 

 nia, and this may be due to a difference in habits. The gray fox 

 makes his lair under the roots of a tree or a shelving rock, while 

 the red fox tunnels out a burrowlike den underground. With 



