A REVIEW OF THE SUMMER BIRDS OF A PART OF 

 THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, WITH PREFATORY 

 REMARKS ON THE FAUNAE AND FLORAL FEA- 

 TURES OF THE REGION. 



® 



\UR present knowledge of the birds, if it cannot as truly be said 

 the entire vertebrate fauna, of our great Appalachian chain of 

 mountains, with the exception of a few limited sections, is virtually 

 reducible to a recognition of the law of latitudinal equivalent in alti- 

 tude obtaining in the distribution of terrestrial life, qualified by obser- 

 vations scanty and sporadic. 



Notwithstanding the ease of access and popularity as summer 

 resorts of many sections of this great mountain system, and its im- 

 portance from a zoological standpoint, few parts of it are so satisfac- 

 torily treated in our ornithological literature as are portions of the 

 distant ranges of the West. Until recendy, it could not be said that 

 we had anything at all comprehensive or authoritative pertaining to 

 the birds of any part of this system, and the extent of our published 

 knowledge of its ornithology could almost be summed up in the con- 

 tents of a few isolated notes and of scanty facts scattered through 

 biographical matter. Indeed the bird biographies of Wilson and 

 Audubon furnish important facts relating to this subject which still 

 remain without other authority. 



It is this state of our knowledge which so urgently demands all 

 facts in point, whether for actual increase or merely for verification, 



