234 



EiFRiG, Birds of Western Maryland. 



r Auk 



L April 



BIRDS OF ALLEGANY AND GARRETT COUNTIES, 

 WESTERN MARYLAND.! 



BY G. EIFRIG. 



The topography and physiography of the two westernmost 

 counties of Maryland are very complex and interesting, and 

 accordingly the faunal and floral life-zones and areas are cor- 

 respondingly complex and interesting. The lowest point that I 

 can find on the beautiful maps lately published by the Maryland 

 Geological Survey is 500 feet above sea level. This is in the 

 extreme southeastern corner of Allegany County, on the Potomac 

 River, and is the only point so low in the section under considera- 

 tion. From this the elevation rises at many places very rapidly, to 

 2500-3000 feet and attains the greatest height, 3400 feet, on the 

 summit of the Great Backbone Mountain in the southwest corner 

 of Garrett County and of the State. Cumberland is 800 feet, 

 Frostburg, both in Allegany County, 2000 feet, rising rapidly to 

 the top of the Big Savage Mountain, on whose side it lies, to 3000 

 feet. Oakland, Accident, and Finzel, Garrett County, lie in the 

 broad glades and basin between the high ridges, all being 2400 

 to 2600 feet in elevation. These higher ridges, such as the 

 Backbone, Big and Little Savage, Negro, Meadow, and Dan's 

 Mountains, the last with Dan's Rock, from which a sublime view 

 is to be had, are 2800 to 3400 feet high. 



The lower parts, of which Garrett County has next to none, are 

 in the Upper Austral or Carolinian life-zone, as is plainly to be 

 seen by birds like the Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, 

 and Bluebird being permanent residents, and by trees like the 

 tulip tree {Liriodetidroii hiHpifera), sassafras {S. sassafras), dog- 

 wood {Cornus fiorida), and black gum {^Nyssa sylvatica). The 



' Since Maryland is very narrow in its western part, being at Cumberland 

 only five miles, and as many of these observations have been made along the 

 two boundaries of the State — the Potomac River on the one side and the 

 Mason and Dixon line on the other — and have been frequently corroborated 

 on the other side of each, this list holds good also for the adjoining part of 

 West Virginia and for Somerset County, Penns\lvania. 



