I8S6.1 Brewster on the Birds of Western North Carolina. QQ 



cens^ Lynx canadensis^ and Sciurus hudsonius. He infers 

 "that the region, including the crest of the Alleghany Mountains 

 to their southern extremity in Georgia, possesses a fauna in many 

 respects entirely different from that of the southern two-thirds of 

 the Alleghanian fauna as defined by Verrill, and in some respects 

 as similar to the Canadian." 



His bird-collecting was done in September, a season when 

 almost any suitable locality in the South is well supplied with 

 such migratory northern birds as those just named. On this ac- 

 count their presence at the times and places mentioned possessed 

 no special significance. Had Professor Cope recognized this 

 fact, and in addition considered carefully the very different re- 

 spective elevations at which he found his northern mammals and 

 sovithern reptiles, he might have escaped conclusions which, as 

 far as they are formulated, are unwarrantable, and which do little 

 credit to so distinguished a naturalist, especially when it is con- 

 sidered that he spent upwards of two months collecting at vari- 

 ous localities and altitudes. 



From an ornithologist's standpoint the region vmder discussion 

 may be easily and naturally treated as embracing three distinct 

 faunae, which, in all essential respects, conform closely with the 

 Canadian, Alleghanian. and Carolinian Faunje of Eastern North 

 America at large. The boundaries of these divisions are deter- 

 mined chiefly by elevation, the Canadian occupying the tops and 

 upper slopes of the higher mountains down to about 4500 feet, 

 the Alleghanian the mountain sides, higher valleys, and plateaus 

 between 4^00 and 2^00 feet, and the Carolinian everything below 

 the altitude last named. 



Owing to the irregular surface of the country, no one of these 

 faunte is continuous over a large area, for the birds, as well as" 

 the trees and shrubs, are continually changing with the elevation. 

 I have left a vallev where Mockingbirds, Bewick's Wrens, and 

 Cardinals were singing in water oaks, sweet gums, and n7agno- 

 lias, climbed a mountain side covered with oaks and hickories, 

 and inhabited by Wilson's Thrushes, Yellow-throated Vii-eos, and 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and yvithin an hour or two from the 

 time of starting found mysfelf in a dense spruce forest where 

 Winter Wrens, Golden-crested Kinglets and Red-bellied Nut- 

 hatches were the most abundant and characteristic birds. Indeed, 

 were it possible in the present state of our knowledge to indicate ■ 



