DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 9 



slract of the Proceedings of the D. V. 0. C. of Phila." for 1898 

 and 1899), and by other observers. 



The trip taken last June by Mr. Brown and the writer seems 

 to show that this same change of fauna is by no means confined 

 to the eastern section of the mountains of Pennsylvania. 

 Rather it is going on at just as rapid and alarming a pace 

 farther to the west, on the ridges and plateau-land of Tioga, 

 Potter and Clinton Counties. Wherever, indeed, the original 

 forest is disappearing under axe and fire, especially in those 

 sections where the hemlock and other coniferous trees are being 

 cut away, there just as surely we may also look for the dis- 

 appearance of most of our boreal birds and plants. A more 

 striking illustration of this dependence of the more northern 

 plants and animals on the original primeval forests could hardly 

 be cited than under the conditions which we found to prevail 

 last summer in certain sections of Potter and (Clinton Counties. 

 The immense value of those forests, too, in preserving the 

 water suijply of the countrj' and thus helping the farmers of 

 our State to withstand the long and disastrous droughts to 

 which we seem to have been peculiarly subject in recent years, 

 was amply proved. Perhaps also one of the primary causes of 

 those droughts was manifested. 



Take, for example, the conditions as we found them prevail- 

 ing at Tamarack Swamp in the northern part of Clinton County. 

 This swamp was truly like a little oasis in a desert. And why ? 

 Simply because, as must be clear to even the casual observer, 

 the dense growth of hemlocks, spruces, balsams and other 

 heavy foliaged forest trees keeps out the hot rays of the summer 

 sun and affords a cool retreat both for birds and plants. As 

 proof of this we have but to look at the character of the bird 

 and plant life existing in the Swamp. Everywhere we find 

 beautiful beds of sphagnum mosj, all cool and moist. And 

 everywhere, too, one sees little pools of icy-cold water collected 

 around the roots of the trees, while here and there we come 

 upon more open woodland glades where the sun seems hardly 

 to penetrate on account of the thick foliage of the coniferous 

 trees overhead. It is here that we find such boreal plants 

 as Waldsteinia fragarmdes, Coptis trifolia, Rubus amerkanvs, 



