9 



lated vegetable matter, and upon them hang dense festoons of the 

 gray beard-moss {Usnea barbata). Here the Parula Warblers 

 abound, darting about among the tufts of moss in which their dainty 

 nests are so securely hidden. Here, too, the clear note of the 

 Hooded "Warbler is heard throughout the nesting season, though this 

 species is perhaps more plentiful in the holly thickets on the edge of 

 the swamps. Cardinals and Catbirds are also at home in these 

 thickets, and the anxious cries of the Carolina Chickadee frequently 

 greet the ear. Probably the most characteristic bird of the swamps, 

 however, is the White-eyed Vireo, whose clear and somewhat 

 monotonus song is heard continually. 



It is in the Pine Barren Region of New Jersey that an occasional 

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher or Mockingbird is most likely to be found, 

 though both these birds are very scarce in this stale, as well as in 

 Pennsylvania. 



The Lowlands of Pennsylvania — South-eastern Pennsylvania is 

 cut off sharply from the mountainous parts of the state by the 

 Kittatinny or Blue Mountain, which extends in a nearly straight line 

 from the Delaware Water Gap to the middle of Cumberland county, 

 where it bends to the southward and crosses the Maryland boundary. 

 The country to the south of this ridge is an undulating slope, com- 

 prising the valleys of the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna, and 

 the slightly more elevated ground between them. North of these 

 valleys, and immediately below the Blue Mountain, there is also a 

 long valley extending diagonally across the state from north-east to 

 south-west. The lower end of this valley — Cumberland Valley — is 

 bounded on the south by another ridge, known as the South Moun- 

 tain, and the same ridge reappears between Reading and Easton. 

 In the intervening part, however, the more northern valley passes 

 imperceptibly into Ithe lowlands to the south. 



Besides the South Mountain and its eastern extension the prin- 

 cipal elevations in south-eastern Pennsylvania are the Welsh Moun- 

 tain, Copper Mine Ridge and North Valley Hills, in Lancaster and 

 Chester counties. 



The greater part of New Jersey, north of the Pine Barrens, is 

 identical with this portion of Pennsylvania in its fauna. 



The characteristics of the several divisions of this region are as 

 follows : 



The Delaware Valley. — The country lying on each side of the 

 Delaware River, including in New Jersey a narrow strip bounded on 



