i8S6.] Brewster on the Birds of Westertt North Caro/t'tin. lOI 



D. ccsrzdescens invariably in or near extensive tracts of rhodo- 

 dendrons. For the rest it will not do to draw the lines too 

 closely in a region where a bird can easily fly, in a few minutes, 

 from a valley filled with southern trees and shrubs to a moun- 

 tain summit clothed with northern Coniferae. Indeed, it is 

 chiefly surprising that faunal lines can be drawn at all under 

 such conditions. 



Another curious fact is the apparent absence in the breeding 

 season of many northern birds which might be reasonably ex- 

 pected to occur. That such ijon-migratory species as Pcrisoreus 

 ca?zade/isis, Picoides arcticus et america/ius^ and Dendragopus 

 canadensis have never discovered these isolated spruce forests 

 is not perhaps strange ; but wh}' should not the migrator}^ Tiir- 

 dus swainsoni et pallasi^ Dendroica coronata et maculosa^ and 

 Zonotrichia albicollis here find, on the higher mountains, as 

 congenial a summer home as have Tttrdus fuscescens^ Dendroica 

 blackbnrnice et ccerulescens, and jfu/ico hyemalis? Scarcely 

 less remarkable is the absence, at mid-altitudes, of Hebnin- 

 thophila rujicapilla^ Pocecetes gramineus^ and Melospiza fas- 

 ciata. 



Owing to the briefness of ray stay and the rapidity of my 

 movements it was impossible to collect many specimens. In 

 most cases mv material barely serves to authenticate my notes ; 

 in very few will it warrant generalizing. But as far as it goes it 

 indicates that at least some of the northern birds inhabiting this 

 elevated southern region have been more or less modified by the 

 peculiar conditions of their environment. The Solitary Vireos and 

 Juncos are decidedly larger than their northern representatives ; 

 the Robins and Black-capped Chickadees {atricapilltts) are 

 apparently smaller. Others again, as the Brown Creeper, Gold- 

 en-crested Kinglet, and Red-bellied Nuthatch, do not difter ap- 

 preciably. 



The following list contains all the species that I personally and 

 positively identified, and no others, except a few well-known 

 and unmistakable game birds, included on the authority of local 

 sportsmen. For obvious reasons I have restricted it to the i-esi- 

 dent and siunmer birds, the few migratoiy species, of whose 

 occurrence during autumn or winter I have satisfactory proofs, 

 being given in a separate category. As a catalogue of even the 

 summer birds it must be necessarily far from complete ; but it 

 should at least serve as a starting point for future investigators. 



