i886.] Rives on Birds of Salt Pond Mountain^ Virginia. IS7 



111 his very interesting- paper on the Summer Birds of the 

 Catskills,* Mr. Eugene P. Bicknell, after referring to an arti- 

 cle bv Professor Cope tending to prove that in accordance 

 with the above-mentioned hiw the fauna of the southern Allegha- 

 nies possesses marked Canadian characteristics, calls attention 

 to the fact that the Snowbird (^y/mco hyemalis^ is the only 

 species really typical of the Canadian fauna which has actu- 

 ally been ascertained to breed with regularity south of 

 Pennsylvania. 



During a short visit to the Salt Pond ISIountain, in Giles 

 County, Virginia, on June 4, 1SS5, and a few subsequent days, 

 one or two additional species were seen by the writer, which, 

 from the circumstance of its being the breeding season, would 

 seem to show that the\' rear their young in this locality, and 

 though the observations made were necessarily incomplete from 

 want of time, some account of the birds met with during the 

 few days spent at this little known locality may be of suffi- 

 cient interest to be recorded. 



The Salt Pond Mountain, one of the loftiest in Southwest 

 Virginia, attains the height of 4500 feet, — the highest in the 

 State, White Top Mountain, near the North Carolina line, reach- 

 ing the altitude of 5^30. It derives its name from the Salt Pond, 

 now more appropriately called Mountain Lake, a beautiful sheet 

 of fresh water enclosed between the summit of the mountain and 

 its spurs, and lying at the great elevation of 4000 feet. The lake 

 has for man}' years been a summer resort, but since the building 

 of the New River Rallwav has become much easier of access, 

 as it is but nine miles distant from Staytlde, a station upon the 

 west bank of the New River, opposite Eggleston's Sulphur 

 Springs. The Salt Pond Mountain 4ias long been known to 

 botanists as possessing a very interesting flora, and has been 

 visited by Professor Asa Gray and others of eminence in the 

 science. It is one of the few places in which the rare plant 

 Scdum nevii — orlglnallv discovered in Alabama — has been 

 found. Tlie flora of this region in general, which comprises as 

 might be expected many northern species, has been carefully 

 investigated by Howard Shriver, Esq., of Wytheville, Va., 

 whose writings should be consulted by those interested in this 

 subject. 



* Transactions of the Linnsean Society of New York, Vol. I, 1882. 



