Vol. XXV, pp. 157-162 December 4, 1912 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



NOTES ON THE MAMMALS OF MT. GREYLOCK, 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY MANTON COPELAND. 



Bowdoin College. 



In company with Mr. Julius Rockwell of Taunton, Mass., I 

 -pent from August 27 to September 4, 1911, on Mt. Greylock, 

 Mass., trapping small mammals. Some of the species captured 

 proved to be of special interest, a fact which induced me to 

 publish the following notes, briefly recording the results of our 

 collecting, and presenting available data from other sources on 

 the present mammalian life of the mountain. 



Mt. Greylock, rising 3505 feet above the sea, is the highest 

 peak in Massachusetts. Its fauna! position is so clearly defined 

 by Messrs. W. Faxon and R. Hoffmann in their "Birds of 

 Berkshire County," I can not do better than quote from these 

 authors. "Altitude has as marked an influence on the flora 

 and fauna as latitude. It is this fact that gives Greylock its 

 great interest in the eyes of naturalists. Rising as it does far 

 above the surrounding country, it has the character of an island 

 of northern vegetation — a bit of the Green Mountain thrust to 

 the southward, just as the low, sterile plains of the southern 

 Berkshire towns present the characteristics of Connecticut fields 

 pushed northward. Greylock is clothed to the very summit with 

 fairly tall trees, so that it lacks the Alpine aspect of extremely 

 lofty mountain tops. Nevertheless, there has been found on 

 the top of Greylock, on several occasions, a bird whose normal 

 habitat is the edge of the tree line of the loftier northern moun- 

 tains. This bird is the Bicknell's Thrush, found on Slide 

 Mountain in the Catskills, and some of the higher peaks of the 

 Adirondaeks, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the White 

 30— 1 j kuc. Biol. Soc. Wash.. Vol. XXV. 1912. (157) 



