29O Baily, Birds of Northern Elk County, Pa. [^ 



Susquehanna, is generally flat, depressed by streams winding 

 through it, not as a rule over 600 feet deep, while in the Appala- 

 chian system the valleys are rolling and the mountains rise in peaks 

 and ridges high above them. Hence we find the fields, pastures, 

 and orchards occupying the lowlands in the mountainous district, 

 while in the northwestern part of the State they are on the high 

 ground almost on a level with the ridges of the Appalachian 

 Mountains. Such a marked difference in the contour of the two 

 localities in question is sufficient for considerable faunal variation. 



As to temperature, the severe weather continues so late in the 

 spring that frost occurs sometimes well into May, and in 1894, on 

 the first of June, the apple crop was so nipped that it was rendered 

 practically useless. This condition is unfavorable to the advance- 

 ment of many of the southern birds, which, however, venture far 

 up into the mountains. 



On the northern border of Elk County, about 2,200 feet above 

 sea level, one of the highest points of the table-lands west of the 

 Alleghanies, yet among fields, orchards, and pasture-land, is the 

 enviable home of Captain A. G. Clay, from early May to the end 

 of November, and in his hunting years, not many snows ago, his 

 fires were kept burning far into the winter months as well. In this 

 very vicinity the Wild Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) bred for the 

 last time in any great numbers, and only a scattered few, to the 

 Captain's knowledge, have been observed during the past thirteen 

 years. 



Twenty years ago the hunting in Elk County was worth speaking 

 of, but railroads for the purpose of developing the oil, coal, and 

 lumber are multiplying every year and the great hemlocks are fast 

 disappearing, though not materially on the Captain's land of several 

 square miles. 



Within one hundred yards of his house is a pond not 200 feet 

 long, the only one in the locality, and during migrations nearly 

 every eastern species of Duck that flies overland, besides a variety 

 of Gulls, Herons, Rail and Snipe, drop to rest and feed on this 

 pond. The Captain gave me a list of 74, mainly game birds, 

 most of which he has taken on or near this pond. 



' Upland,' the name of Captain Clay's property, adjoins the 

 McKean County line within half a mile of his house, and only a 



