June Birds of Fulton County, Pa. 



BY WITHER STONE 



A COUNTY Tvithout a railroad would seem to be an attractive 

 spot for a lover of nature, and Fulton being distinguished in 

 this way from all the other counties of Pennsylvania, claimed 

 our attention for a few days in June, 1905. Dr. Wm. E. 

 Hughes and William L. Baily had planned the trip in the hope 

 of learning more of the breeding habits of some of the Warblers 

 and other Alleghanian species which occur along the broken 

 chains of the Appalachian system farther north in the state, 

 and it was my good fortune to be able to join them. 



We left the sleeper early on the morning of June 3 at Cham- 

 bersburg and travelled to Mercersburg on a winding single-track 

 road through a rich agricultural district with alternating fields 

 of ripening wheat, timothy grass and growing corn. It was a 

 clear, cool, delightful June morning, and the familiar notes of 

 the farmland birds floated in from every side. One could make 

 up a good day's list from ear alone without leaving the car; and 

 with the familiar songs came the oft-recurring reflection — what 

 was such a region like in the primaeval days? What were 

 the original haunts of the Barn Swallow and the Chipping 

 Sparrow? And what was the native flora of the farmer's acres 

 where everything is now either cultivated or a weed ? Questions 

 I fear which will not soon be answered. 



But the country through which we had just passed brought 

 up other thoughts as well. The region is historic, for this was 

 the boyhood hunting-ground of Prof. Spencer F. Baird, and 

 from his home at Carlisle, before any thought of the Smith- 

 sonian or the Fish Commission had entered his mind, he 

 roamed over these valleys and onto the hills which skirt them, 

 gathering the materials for his List of the Birds of Carlisle and 

 Vicinity, published in 1844 — one of the first local lists of Amer- 



(40) 



