8 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



by the ground fires which have hcked up the leaves and other rubbish, leaving 

 the large hardwoods uninjured but burning the resinous butts of the hemlock? 

 deeply enough to destroy them. Owing to the admixture of these species, 

 and especially to the fact that much of the white pine region as interrupted 

 and interlaced with tracts of Jack pine, to be mentioned later, it seems best 

 to limit the term Pine Region to those parts which originally were forested 

 mainly with the white pine or with this and the Norway pine. What may 

 have been the original bird life of these great pine forests is somewhat uncer- 

 tain. Study of the few large tracts left gives us some hints, but the varia- 

 tions in elevation, geographical position, and local conditions make the 

 generalizations based on these instances somewhat unsafe. It is matter of 

 common knowledge that the deep forest never holds the abundant bird life 

 that is found along its edges or in the more hghtly timbered openings. All 

 life seems to be more or less repressed and smothered so that reptiles, mam- 

 mals, and even insects, as well as birds, seem to have suffered somewhat the 

 same effect as the shrubby and herbaceous vegetation which dwindles or 

 dies out almost entirely in the deep shade of the pine. 



Characteristic birds of the real pine forest are comparatively few. Among 

 them may be mentioned the woodpeckers, particularly the Pileated, Hairy 

 and Three-toed, the two species of Nuthatch, the Black-capped Chickadee, 

 Brown Creeper and Winter Wren, the Crow, Blue Jay and Canada Jay, the 

 Wood Pewee and Olive-sided Flycatcher, the Red-shouldered and Sharp- 

 shinned Hawks, the Great Horned, Long-eared, Barred, and Screech Owls, 

 the Red Cross! )ill and Pine Finch, the Hermit Thrush and in some places the 

 Olive-back, and several species of Warbler, the most constant being the 

 Pine, the Black-throated Green, the Blackburnian and the Black and White. 



The Jack Pine Plains, or the Plains Region, forms a vast, irregular area 

 lying mainly within the pine region just described but consisting of those 

 sandy and rather sterile plains which lie farther from the water courses and 

 are characterized by the abundance of the almost worthless Jack Pine (Pinus 

 banksiana), several oaks collectively known as scrub oaks, certain poplars or 

 aspens, the low willow (Sahx humilis), the pin cherry, chokecherry and service 

 berry or shadbush (Amelanchier). The sweet-fern (Comptonia), winter- 

 green (Gaultheria), various blueberries (Vaccinium), and the eagle fern 

 (Pteridium aquilinum) are equally characteristic among the undergrowth, 

 and in favorable places the ground may be matted with the Bear Berry 

 (Arctostaphylos) or overgrown with trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens). 

 Twenty-one counties in this region aggregate more than two million acres 

 of the plains lands, Oscoda county in the northeast alone holding 204,000 

 acres, and Newaygo county at the southwest 194,000 acres. 



The summer bird population of these plains is as characteristic as their 

 plant life, and includes not less than fifty species, those most frequently met 

 with, roughly in order of abundance, being: Vesper Sparrow, Chipping 

 Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Robin, Bluebird, Chewink, Nighthawk, House 

 Wren, Kingbird, Cedarbird, Wood Pewee, Flicker, Brown Thrasher, Catbird, 

 Chickadee, Bluejay, Red-eyed Vireo, Junco, Indigo Bird, Sparrow Hawk, 

 White-breasted Nuthatch, Hairy Woodpecker, Black-billed Cuckoo, Gold- 

 finch, Cowbird and Hermit Thrush. 



Particular interest is given to the region by the fact that Kirtland's Warbler, 

 the rarest of North American warblers, has been found nesting on the Jack 

 Pine plains of two counties, Oscoda and Crawford, and nowhere else in the 

 world, though it is a foregone conclusion that it will be found eventually in 



