42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



northern species of plants. From the summit of Scrub ridge 

 we looked off from a precipitous cliS over an immense culti- 

 vated valley stretching away to the western boundary of the 

 county, where another wall of mountains interrupted the view, 

 though above them we could see faintly outlined the main 

 chain of the Alleghanies. 



The view here was superb, and as an interesting foreground 

 setting there was an old nest occupying a ledge in the rocks 

 where they jutted out farther than usual, which we looked 

 upon as a possible former home of the Raven, a bird which is 

 well-known to frequent this vicinity. Far down below us, too, 

 was a tall pine-tree bearing at its very summit a Red-tailed 

 Hawk's nest containing two young, which we could study with 

 ease by the aid of a glass, while the parent birds circled above 

 and below us in great concern. 



These ridges were all covered with deciduous trees or with 

 pines — the pitch and Table Mountain pines predominating with 

 some considerable patches of white pine. Those who ought to 

 know told us that hemlock had never covered these mountains, 

 and certainly there was no evidence of the noble forest which 

 once enveloped the main Alleghanian plateau, and of which 

 fragments still remain in Sullivan and Wyoming and Somerset 

 counties, though rapidly disappearing to satisfy the greed of the 

 lumbermen. 



It was equally evident that we were too far east and at too 

 low an elevation to expect more than a tinge of the Alleghanian 

 fauna, and the event showed that our most interesting experi- 

 ences were connected with one exception with southern rather 

 than northern birds. 



Toward the southeastern corner of the county the first valley 

 becomes quite narrow, and eventually near Big Cove Tannery 

 the mountains run together. In this section we found our 

 most interesting birds, species which only at one or two points 

 regularly cross the Mason and Dixon line. These were the 

 Bewick's Wren Thryomanes heivickii and Red-bellied Woodpecker 

 Centurus carolinm. We saw but one of the former, which flew 

 about the barn and outbuilding of a farm-house, perched for 

 a long time on the topmost twig of a buttonwood pouring out 



