292 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



and shrews, and by the widespread swallowtail butterfly Papilio 

 machaon. In the western mountains there are wild sheep, the mountain 

 goat, bears, and the conspicuous large white butterfly Parnassius. 

 Among American types are the puma, raccoon, skunks, tree porcupines, 

 American squirrels and other rodents, and the American (Virginia) 

 type of deer, and, among strictly North American animals, the coyote. 



Among the birds of Old World affinities there are in the boreal 

 region, of general distribution, many ducks, loons, the golden eagle, 

 raven, crow, Canada jay, hawk-owl, several hawks and falcons, cross- 

 bills, nuthatches, the magpie, the Bohemian waxwing, and various 

 smaller species. Among the birds confined to the far northwest, in 

 Alaska, Cassin's bullfinch, the red-spotted bluethroat, yellow wagtail, 

 and willow warbler migrate south in winter through Asia, not through 

 America. 



Distinctively American types of general distribution are the 

 Canada goose and its varieties, snow geese, the blue goose, ruddy and 

 other ducks, the little brown crane, several owls, the bald eagle, and 

 many small birds. Confined to the west are the emperor goose, black 

 brant, bristle-thighed curlew, wandering tatler, surfbird, and many 

 small birds. In the central part of the continent are the whooping 

 crane, Wilson's phalarope, and some other species. Special mention 

 must be made of two large families of birds peculiar to America that 

 reach the boreal region, the American warblers (Parulidae), many of 

 which breed in the northern forests, and the hummingbirds (Trochil- 

 idae), of which one, the rufous hummingbird, reaches Alaska, and 

 another, the ruby-throated hummingbird, is found from Saskatche- 

 wan to Cape Breton and southward. Many of these strictly American 

 birds breed far to the northward, but all migrate south in winter. 



On Newfoundland many of the animals differ more or less widely 

 from those on the continent, and some of the characteristic continental 

 types, such as the moose, elk, and many smaller species, are lacking. 

 A number of animals on the Labrador peninsula differ from their 

 relatives west of Hudson Bay or farther south. 



Frogs and toads are represented from Alaska to Hudson Bay. A 

 few snakes, turtles (including the soft-shelled turtle), and salaman- 

 ders reach the boreal region in southern Canada. Fishes are abun- 

 dant, though not very diversified, with a number of Old World types 

 such as trout, grayling {Thymallus)^ whitefish (Coregonus) , and pike 

 (Esox), and some American such as the black bass (Micropterv^) , 

 darters (Etheostomidae), and suckers (Catostomidae). In the 

 streams of the north Atlantic coast lives the Atlantic salmon, now 

 becoming rare, and in those of the Pacific coast (and of eastern Asia 

 as well) occur the five species of Pacific salmon (Onchorhynchus) , 

 which, in contrast to the Atlantic salmon, breed only once and die. 



