^°''i9^r^"] Howell, List of Summer Birds of Mt. Mansfield. 337 



A PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE SUMMER BIRDS 

 OF MOUNT MANSFIELD, VERMONT. 



BY ARTHUR H. HOWELL. 



In selecting a desirable point in northern New England to 

 study the bird life, I chose Mt. Mansfield for the double reason 

 that it is the highest mountain in the State of Vermont, and that 

 its fauna is comparatively little known. Indeed, our knowledge 

 of the avifauna of the entire northern portion of the State is very 

 limited, for although two State lists of birds have been published, 

 neither of them meets the requirements of a modern scientific list 

 compiled from authentic records. The first, by Zadoch Thomp- 

 son, published in 1842, is long since out of date^; the second, by 

 Dr. Hiram A. Cutting, is a nominal list of 191 species, many of 

 which are evidently admitted on insufiicient evidence. The anno- 

 tations consist, in the main, of very general statements, and con- 

 tain numerous glaring inaccuracies.'^ 



Numerous scattered notes from the State have appeared in the 

 ornithological magazines, but the only faunal list is that by Dr. F. 

 H. Knowlton, treating of the birds of Brandon. 3 Brandon lies in 

 the west-central portion of the State, in the Champlain Valley, and 

 the list is therefore valuable as indicating the fauna of the 

 AUeghanian portions of the State. It furnishes very little infor- 

 mation, however, concerning the birds that breed in the Canadian 

 zone, and since it was published in a local newspaper, is quite in- 

 accessible to all but a very few persons. 



The list herewith presented is intended to be merely a prelim- 

 inary one, and is offered chiefly as a contribution to our knowl- 

 edge of the breeding ranges of Canadian species. I made two 

 trips to Mt. Mansfield, the first in 1899, from June 14 to 24, the 

 second in 1900, from June 23 to July 2. Observations covering 



1 See History of Vermont, Natural, Civil and Statistical, pp. 56-112. Bur- 

 lington, 1S42. 



^ See Catalogue of the Birds of Vermont, Eighth Vermont Agric. Report, 

 pp. 211—229. Montpelier, 1884. 



^ See 'The Brandon Union,' Dec. 13, 1878; revised list, Feb. 10, 1882. 



