38 WAKE-ROBIN 



Spaulding's cart rumbles through their house. Gen- 

 erally, however, they are as unconscious of Spaul- 

 ding as Spaulding is of them. 



Walking the other day in an old hemlock wood, 

 I counted over forty varieties of these summer vis- 

 itants, many of them common to other woods in 

 the vicinity, but quite a number peculiar to these 

 ancient solitudes, and not a few that are rare in 

 any locality. It is quite unusual to find so large 

 a number abiding in one forest, and that not a 

 large one, most of them nesting and spending the 

 summer there. Many of those I observed commonly 

 pass this season much farther north. But the geo- 

 graphical distribution of birds is rather a climatical 

 one. The same temperature, though under differ- 

 ent parallels, usually attracts the same birds; differ- 

 ence in altitude being equivalent to the difference 

 in latitude. A given height above the sea-level 

 under the parallel of thirty degrees may have the 

 same climate as places under that of thirty-five de- 

 grees, and similar flora and fauna. At the head- 

 waters of the Delaware, where I write, the latitude 

 is that of Boston, but the region has a much greater 

 elevation, and hence a climate that compares better 

 with the northern part of the State and of New 

 England. Half a day's drive to the southeast brings 

 me down into quite a different temperature, with 

 an older geological formation, different forest tim- 

 ber, and different birds, even with different mam- 

 mals. Neither the little gray rabbit nor the little 

 gray fox is found in my locality, but the great 



