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NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



usually near the coast are Holbocll's 

 grebe, loon, red-throated loon, dovekie, 

 great black-backed gull, laughing gull, 

 Leach's petrel, Wilson's petrel, gannet, 

 old-squaw duck, American scoter, white- 

 winged scoter surf scoter, brant, 

 whistling swan, American egret, little 

 blue heron, dowitcher, knot, red- 

 backed sandpiper, sanderling, black- 

 bellied plover, golden plover, semipal- 

 mated plover, ruddy turnstone, and 

 oyster-catcher. 



Species breeding generally throughout 

 the coastal plain are as follows: fish 

 hawk, chuck-will's-widow, fish crow, 

 boat-tailed grackle, Prothonotary 

 warbler, yellow-throated warbler, long- 

 billed marsh wren, and the brown- 

 headed nuthatch. 



The insect fauna of the southeastern 

 mesophytic evergreen forest region has 

 not been studied in relation to the 

 original biota. The number of species 

 of insects is much larger than for the 

 larger forms of life and many insects 

 are limited very much more to distinctly 

 local vegetational conditions. Instead 

 of attempting, therefore, to give a list 

 of species characteristic of this region it 

 will probably serve the purpose much 

 better to name some of the vegetational 

 associations, or types, each of which will 

 have their characteristic local fauna. 

 If the area as a whole was originally a 

 mesophytic evergreen forest the pre- 

 dominating types of insects must have 

 been those of this type of forest. All 

 orders of insects were represented; 

 certain ones, however, more noticeably 

 than others. In the Hymenoptera the 

 Cynipidae and the Tenthridinidae are 

 important while the Cecidomyiidae is one 

 of the important families of the Diptera. 

 The beetles or Coleoptera constitute 

 one of the most important of all orders 

 occurring in forest areas. Of this order 

 the Buprestidae, the Cerambycidae, the 

 Chrysomelidae and the Scolytidae are 

 very important. The Bombyidae and 

 Sesiidae are very important groups of 

 the moths. 



A more restricted insect fauna will be 

 found in the salt marshes. In these 



situations the number of species of 

 plants are limited, due to the salty 

 water, thus limiting the number of spe- 

 cies of insects. The fresh water marshes 

 farther back will have a corresponding 

 larger insect fauna, due to the increase 

 in the number of species of plants. 



The beaches and sand dunes have an 

 insect life very different from that of the 

 forest but very similar to that of beaches 

 and sand dunes along the Atlantic Coast. 



The Deciduous Forest 



This area extends northward and 

 westward from the limits of the South- 

 eastern Mesophytic Evergreen forest 

 and includes all the remaining portion 

 of Maryland except Garrett County in 

 the extreme northwest. 



The western portion of this deciduous 

 forest area in Maryland is much rougher 

 and rockier than the eastern portion. 

 It is crossed by four natural belts extend- 

 ing from the north to the south. Three 

 of these belts are hilly or mountainous; 

 the Parr's Ridge belt, the Blue Ridge, 

 including Catoctin Mountain, and the 

 group of ridges westward from North 

 Mountain. The fourth belt lies mainly 

 between the Blue Ridge and North 

 Mountain. 



The commonest trees were species of 

 oak (Quercus), hickory (Carya), chestnut 

 {Castanea dentata), beech {Fagus grandi- 

 folia), maple (Acer saccharum), walnut 

 (Juglans nigra), tulip tree (Liriodendron 

 tulipifera) and ash (Fraxinus). The 

 vegetation in this area is the least 

 diversified of any of the ecological dis- 

 tricts of Maryland. The topography of 

 the lower part is quite uniform and the 

 marshes and swamps are absent. The 

 soil is also more uniform, playing an 

 important role in the plant life. 



The mammals distinctly characteristic 

 of and more or less limited to the decidu- 

 ous forest area are few in number. The 

 New England cotton-tail rabbit {Sylvila- 

 gus transionalis) is quite characteristic 

 of the deciduous forest area. The gray 

 squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is char- 

 acteristic of this region but also extends 

 into the Northeastern Mesophytic Ever- 



