Introduction 



Facing Long Island Sound for practically all of its hundred 

 ■liles of southern border, Connecticut shows a succession of low, 

 rocky promontories and sandy beaches divided by shallow bays 

 and salt marshes. The latter stretch for varying distances north- 

 ward, but soon give place to rather broad stream valleys, sepa- 

 rated by gently rising hills. These hills, usually low and rounded 

 at the coast, when not dikes or sheets of trap, as near New Haven, 

 become rapidly more mountainous in the northwestern part of the 

 state, culminating in Bear Mountain in the extreme comer, 2,354 

 feet in altitude and sixty miles from the Sound. 



The soil of these hills is usually poor and shallow, while that 

 of many of the valleys is deep and rich, so that, while the low- 

 lands are well cultivated and thickly settled, the uplands are gen- 

 erally left to brush land or forest. From this configuration it will 

 be evident that most of the streams are short and flow in a south- 

 erly direction. Three main river courses cross the state: — the 

 Thames on the east, which for its lower quarter is practically an 

 arm of the sea, and above that hardly more than a small stream; 

 the Connecticut, which passes through the center, in a broad and 

 fertile valley in its upper course, and in a narrow valley hemmed 

 in by highlands below Portland ; and the Housatonic in the western 

 part, with a narrow and much more mountainous valley. Appar- 

 ently the Connecticut and upper Housatonic valleys and the south- 

 em coast line are highways for the migration of our birds in 

 spring, and the coast line certainly is in fall, but our information 

 on this point is at present very incomplete. 



The woodland consists chiefly of deciduous trees, though hem- 

 locks and cedars are common, and groves of white pine and 

 spruce still exist in the northwestern portion. 



Shut off from the ocean by Long Island, strictly pelagic birds 

 are seldom found in Connecticut, but for many other species it 

 is particularly fitted as regards climate and topography. Over 135 



