INTRODUCTION. 9 



neighboring counties, if not in similar regions in the Upper Peninsula and in 

 Wisconsin. 



The borders of the rivers and smaller sti'eams which dissect the plains 

 furnish other common species, such as the Kingfisher, Bank Swallow, Great 

 Blue Heron, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Crested Flycatcher, Song Sparrow 

 and Phoebe, while the included or adjacent swamps of arbor vitae (white 

 cedar), balsam-fir, spruce, hemlock and white pine harbor scores of other 

 birds, the most abundant and universal being half a dozen kinds of hawks 

 and owls, three or four species of woodpeckers, including the Black-backed 

 Three-toed, a dozen species of warblers (Canadian, ]\Iagnolia, Black and 

 White, Parula, Yellow-rumped, Blackburnian, Yellow, Marjdand Yellow- 

 throat, Nashville, Mourning, Small-billed Waterthrush, Black-throated 

 Green), several flycatchers and thrushes, the Winter Wren, and commonest 

 of all, the White-throated Sparrow. It is a singular fact that the Jack Pine 

 Plains proper have no single species of warbler which is at all characteristic, 

 with the exception of the rare Kirtland, of whose distribution as yet we 

 know so little. True, in certain spots, where conditions are especially 

 favorable, where the Jack Pines themselves form goodly groves of medium 

 height, or where oaks and maples indicate better soil or more moisture, we 

 find the Oven-bird, the Black-throated Green Warbler and the Black and 

 White, while an occasional Chestnut-sided, Yellow, or Redstart may be 

 found almost anywhere; as a rule, however, the typical Jack Pine Plains are 

 marked by the complete absence of warblers. 



The Hardwood Forest Region in the upper half of the Lower Peninsula 

 still includes hundreds of thousands of acres of hardwood lands, on which 

 there is a heavy growth of noble beech and maple, intermixed with birch, 

 basswood and other broad-leaved trees, and formerly with scattered white 

 pines and hemlocks of large size, now mostly cut Ijy the lumberman. These 

 woods, for the most part, are on high or at least fairly well-drained land, 

 not to be mistaken for the swamp lands with their much inferior covering 

 of elm, ash, birch, cottonwood, tamarack, red maple and other softwood 

 trees. These grand hardwood forests are the summer homes of many birds 

 not seen elsewhere, though of course they shelter also species of general 

 distribution. 



Among the more characteristic forms may be mentioned, again in ap- 

 proximate order of abundance: Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, White- 

 breasted Nuthatch, Chickadee, Wood Pewee, Hermit and Wood Thrushes, 

 Red-eyed and Solitary Vireos, Sapsucker, Crow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, 

 Scarlet Tanager, Ovenbird, Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue and Black 

 and White Warblers, Redstart, Red-shouldered, Broad-winged and Cooper's 

 Hawks, Winter Wren, and Pileated Woodpecker. 



Burnt-over lands, of which there are millions of acres in the state, vary 

 much in their bird-life according to the nature of the original forest, whether 

 largely pine or hardwood, and especially the length of time which has elapsed 

 since the burning. The most desolate are the pine regions originally lumbered 

 and then burned, where the sandy soil has had most of the humus eaten out 

 by the fire and there is not enough body left to sustain a good second growth. 

 Such an area comes to be lightly covered with bluel)erry and blackberry 

 bushes, aspen or poplar, and one or more species of small willow, while the 

 visible remnants of the primeval forest, soon disappear. One ma.v ride for 

 hours through these desolate solitudes and see hardly more than a dozen species 

 of birds, the commonest being the Vesper Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Chewink, 



