4 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



south, nearly or quite to the Indiana line, and the same is true of white pine. 



"One seldom beholds a drearier sight than a dead and deserted lumber 

 region. The valuable trees were all felled years ago, and the lumberman 

 moved on to fresh spoils, leaving behind an inextricably confused mass of 

 tree tops, broken logs, and uprooted trunks. Blackberry canes spring up 

 everywhere, forming a tangled thicket, and a few scattering poplars, birches, 

 and cherries serve for arboreal life, above which tower the dead pines, bleached 

 in the weather and blackened by fire, destitute of limbs, and looking at a 

 distance not unlike the masts of some great harbor. Thousands of such 

 acres, repellant alike to botanist and settler, can be seen in any of our northern 

 counties. 



"In certain districts considerable beech is found associated with the pine. 

 The soil of such tracts is usually of better quality, and can be rendered pro- 

 ductive without much labor. It may be noted that in such cases the pine 

 also grows thriftier and makes better lumber." 



DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMAL LIFE. 



According to Dr. C. Hart Merriam, our highest authority on geographical 

 distribution of life in America, Michigan contains large areas of three of the 

 main hfe zones of the eastern United States; namely, the Upper Austral 

 or Carolinian Zone, the Transition or Alleghanian Zone, and the lower Boreal 

 or Canadian Zone. 



"The Carolinian faunal area occupies the larger part of the Middle States, 

 except the mountains, covering southeastern South Dakota, * * * 

 nearly the whole of Iowa, * * * Illinois, Indiana, Ohio * * * ^j^^j 

 large areas in New York, Michigan and Southern Ontario. On the Atlantic 

 coast it reaches from near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to southern Con- 

 necticut, and sends narrow arms up the valleys of the Connecticut and 

 Hudson rivers. A little farther west another slender arm is sent northward, 

 following the east shore of Lake Michigan nearly or quite to Grand Traverse 

 Bay. These arms, like nearly all narrow northward prolongations of southern 

 zones, do not carry the complete faunas and floras of the areas to which 

 they belong, but lack certain species from the start and become more and 

 more dilute to the northward till it is hard to say where they really end. 

 Their northern boundaries, therefore, must be drawn arbitrarily or must be 

 based on the presence or absence of particular species rather than the usual 

 association of species. 



"Counting from the north, the Carolinian area is that in which the sassafras, 

 tulip tree, hackberry, sycamore, sweet gum, rose magnolia, red bud, per- 

 simmon, and short-leaf pine first make their appearance, together with the 

 opossum, gray fox, fox squirrel, cardinal bird, Carolina wren, tufted tit, 

 gnatcatcher, summer tanager, and yellow-breasted chat. Chestnuts, hickory 

 nuts, hazelnuts, and walnuts grow wild in abundance. The area is of very 

 great agricultural importance." (Merriam. Life Zones and Crop Zones 

 of the U. S., Biol. Survey, Bull. 10, 1898, pp. 30-31.) 



According to the same author "The Canadian zone comprises the southern 

 part of the great ti-anscontinental coniferous forest of Canada, the northern 

 parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Michigan * * * and the greater 

 part of the high mountains of the United States and Mexico * * * 

 Among the many characteristic mammals and birds of the Canadian zone 

 are the lynx, marten, porcupine, northern red and pine squirrels, varying 

 and snowshoe rabbits, star-nose, Brewer's and Gibbs' moles, water shrew, 



