NOTES ON THE MAMMALS OF THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, 

 NEW YORK. WITH GENERAL REMARKS ON THE FAUNA 

 AND FLORA OF THE REGION. 



By Edgar A. Mearns, M. 1)., 



Caplain and Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. 



These notes are based ou observations covering the period between 

 August 4 and September 14, 1896, supplemented by such information 

 as could be obtained from the residents of tlie region. During this 

 time I lived at Evelyne Villa, near Kaaterskill Junction, on the Stony 

 Clove and Catskill Mountain Railroad. This house occupies a hillslope 

 at the base of East Kill INIountaiii, on the right (north) bank of Schoharie 

 Creek, at an elevation of nearly 1,800 feet above the sea, and commands 

 a superb view of Plateau and Hunter mountains and of the Stony 

 Clove between them. The place is surrounded by orchards and farm- 

 ing lands, broken by small bits of forest and larger wooded strips along 

 the streams, which latter are numerous, though of small size, and 

 tributary to Schoharie Creek. This large brook, the main water course 

 of the locality, rises about 8 miles above Evelyne Villa and 10 miles 

 above the town of Hunter, reaching the sea through the Mohawk and 

 Hudson rivers. 



The work was of the nature of a reconnoissance rather than a system- 

 atic examination of this interesting region ; and more was not attempted. 

 The lirst fortnight was spent in examining the country in the vicinity 

 of Evelyne Villa and Schoharie Creek. After that, the summits of East 

 Kill Mountain (altitude about 3,200 feet]. Plateau Mountain (altitude 

 about 3,900 feet), and Hunter Mountain (altitude 4,025 feet) were 

 climbed. On these expeditions I sometimes burdened myself with a 

 shotgun, for the entertainment of my boy and the benefit of an orni- 

 thological friend, to whom we are looking for an account of the birds 

 of the Catskill region. ' We set out long lines of traps of various kinds 



' Some of the most beautiful pen pictures of the bird life of the Catskills are con- 

 tained in the earlier writings of .John Burroughs. Mr. T. M. Trippe (American 

 Naturalist, .January, 1872, A'^I, pp. 47, 48,) has also furnished interesting notes on 

 a few species, and Mr. Eugene Piutard Bicknell, in the Transactions of the Liuuiuan 

 Society of New York, has given au extended review of the summer birds of a part 

 of the Catskill Mountains in the vicinity of Slido Mountain, the highest of the 

 range (altitude 4,205 feet). 



Proceedings U. S. National IVIuseum, Vol. XXI— No. 1 147. 



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