132 DwiGHT, Slimmer Birds of the Pen/isylvatna Alleghanies. [April 



with the forests will disappear many of the birds that now dwell 

 in their shade. Cresson and North Mountain are characteristic 

 spots to study the fauna and flora of the plateau region. The 

 elevation of both places is very nearly the same, a little over 2000 

 feet ; but while the latter rej^resents the mountains in their orig- 

 inal w^ildness, the former shows them in a semi-civilized state, 

 after they have been stripped of forest and converted into a coun- 

 try of woodland and pasture. Of the intervening region I can 

 only say that it probably partakes of the nature of both, the forest 

 predominating. 



On North Mountain the forest is truly primeval ; the hemlock, 

 the yellow birch, and the maple are the characteristic trees, and 

 attain great size. The hemlocks are scattered in considerable 

 numbers through the forest, and tower above it, their huge 

 trunks, often four or five feet in diameter, marking them out as 

 giants among their lesser brethren. The underbrush is often 

 dense and everywhere great logs, covered with green moss, lie 

 mouldering. Here and there you hear clear cold brooks that 

 seem to imitate the song of the Winter Wren that is almost con- 

 stantly heard along them. The drawling song of the Black- 

 throated Blue Warbler and the sprightly one of the Canadian 

 Warbler is heard on every hand. High up in the hemlocks 

 the drowsy sounds of the Black-throated Green Warbler are 

 heard, and the lively chatter of the Blackburnian Warbler catches 

 the ear. Is not this a bit of northern Maine .'' You can easily imag- 

 ine yourself there, although several familiar birds of that region 

 are here missing. There are no White-throated Sparrows, nor 

 Myrtle Warblers, so truly Canadian. The only civilized spot on 

 North Mountain is the clearing of a few acres about a summer 

 hotel on its extensive, almost level top, at an altitude of 331 8 

 feet. Here it was that for the first time in my life I heard the 

 Wood Thrush, the Hermit, and the Olive-backed all singing at 

 the same time. The three species were abundant, and the music 

 at sundown was a concert wliich for sweetness would be hard to 

 excel. 



There is a wild and rocky gorge down the eastern side of 

 North Mountain, a most picturesque spot and one typical of the 

 wilderness. Kitchen's Creek tumbles down something like a thou- 

 sand feet in its course from the plateau above to the valley below, 

 giving rise to a succession of foaming pools and noisy waterfalls of 



