1S92.] DvviGHT, Summer Birds of the Pennsylvania Allcghanics. I 3 T 



Alleghanies is the principal range, near the centre of the 

 State ; its sky line is seldom below 2000 feet elevation, and many 

 points reach 2500 feet. Roughly speaking it may be said that 

 west of this backbone of the mountains is a plateau region sloping 

 away so gradually that much of northern and western Pennsyl- 

 vania is at an altitude which, when combined with forest, cannot 

 {■A\\ to attract birds of the Canadian avifauna. Eastward, on the 

 contrar}^, this main axis dips sharply into the valley a thousand 

 feet below, from which rises ratlier abruptly an even-topped 

 range, and this in turn descends into another valley, so that a 

 succession of narrow valleys and parallel ridges characterizes 

 much of the eastern part of the State before the level country is 

 reached. Some of these secondary mountains attain considerable 

 altitudes, 2000 feet and more, but they lack the unbroken con- 

 tinuity of the main divide, and the southern extension of the Cana- 

 dian fauna and flora is doubtless less marked upon them than 

 upon the Alleghanies proper. 



There was a time VN^hen the mountains of Pennsylvania were 

 clothed with unbroken forest, the cool recesses of which afforded 

 refuge for many species now found in reduced numbers in the 

 few tracts of timber still untouched by the axe. At the present 

 time the plateau region is in many places covered with farms, 

 which often extend to the very crest line, and there is little sug- 

 gestive of the top of a mountain range. Bits of the original 

 forest, however, still remain in many jDlaces, and on North 

 Mountain (which includes a large section of plateau in or adja- 

 cent to the southern part of Sullivan County) is found what is 

 said to be the largest body of timber remaining uncut in the 

 whole State. It certainly is a grand forest, large hemlocks, yel- 

 low birches, and maples predominating. There are also groups 

 of white pines, and even a tract of spruces, which I was unable 

 to visit, for roads are by no means the rule in this wilderness, 

 and besides my time was limited. 



About Cresson, which is over a hundred miles southwest of 

 North Mountain, there still remain small bodies of timber, chiefly 

 of oak, maple, chestnut, and beech, with here and there a hem- 

 lock. On Wopsononock Mountain, a few miles northeast of 

 Cresson, lumbering is still carried on, but at the rate it is being 

 pushed, here as well as on North Mountain, it will not be many 

 years before the mountains will have been entirely denuded, and 



