Summer Birds of Western Pike County, 

 Pennsylvania 



BY RICHARD C. HARLOW 



The primeval forests which once towered above the nigged 

 sides of the Alleghanies are fast becoming a thing of the past, 

 and no more is it possible to journey for days at a time under 

 the shade of the giant hemlocks. With the denudation of the 

 forest land come totally different conditions in the avifauna. 

 Our northern breeders which used to be found commonly over 

 all the higher mountains are gradually being pressed back into 

 favored localities, in which they may still find respite from the 

 hot rays of the sun that beat down upon dead stumps and rocky 

 slopes where once were cool forests and beds of damp moss. It 

 is a sad scene, and one which I know has been dwelt upon time 

 and time again; yet fresh from the contemplation of the changed 

 conditions I feel constrained to add my testimony, as well as 

 my regret for the fearful destruction that axe and fire have 

 wrought. Our only gratification is that there still remain spots 

 where we may still find bits of the original forest remaining, 

 and with them the remnants of the Canadian fauna which was 

 formerly so much more of a feature in the wild life of Pennsyl- 

 vania. I have been privileged to look upon one of these small 

 bits of timber, wofully small it is true, but just enougli to make 

 one hunger for more, and in the following pages I shall endeavor 

 to present such birds as it was there my good fortune to see. 



Between the counties of Pike and Wayne, in the northeastern 

 part of the State, the Wallenpaupack creek pushes its way to 

 join the Paupack river. It is a typical mountain stream, har- 

 boring numerous trout, and its banks a mass of laurel thickets. 

 The mountains here have been for the most part denuded of 

 their original forest some forty years back, and in the place of 

 the hemlock has sprung up in most cases a deciduous forest of 



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