Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology 15 



Lowland thicket liabitat. Under natural conditions in this 

 region this habitat is typically a narrow zone bounding the 

 lowland forest margin wherever the forest is interrupted by 

 streams, ponds, marshes, or grassland. The plant species com- 

 posing it are numerous, and vary from one example to the 

 next; about the margins of bodies of water willows are almost 

 always present, and among the many other bushes and shrubs 

 of common occurrence are the bladder nut (Staphylea trifolia 

 L.j, elder [Sauibncus canadensis h.), and prickly ash (Zan- 

 thoxyhiui anicricaiium Mill.j. Examples of this habitat in its 

 natural condition are found about the margins of some of the 

 dune ponds where they are surrounded by moist lowland forest. 

 Although this habitat in its typical forest margin form is 

 usually rather limited in extent, in regions where the forests 

 have been removed it generally occupies considerable areas in 

 a somewhat modified form. As Shelford^ has shown, the 

 thickets of roadsides and fence-rows may probably be regarded, 

 from the ecological standpoint, as a modification of the forest 

 margin thicket type. In this region brushy pastures and clear- 

 ings, if neglected, soon grow up to shrubbery and weeds as a 

 stage in their reversion to forested conditions; such areas 

 form a further extension of this type of habitat. Such a 

 thicket was found between the marshy shores of Klute's lakes 

 and the edge of the swampv forest which formerlv bordered 

 them. The soil is moist black muck; among the clumps of 

 taller shrubs and young trees which grow in irregular groups 

 throughout the area the ground is covered with a rank growth 

 of tall herbaceous plants — ironweed, ragweed, nettles, and 

 many others — and with low bushes and seedlings, while vines 



5 Shelford, V. E., 1913, Animal Communities in Temperate North 

 America, p. 275. 



