116 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



New Jersey, and how hard and fast the lines are drawn 

 that mark the habitat of certain plants. Why, then, 

 should it not be true of animals? Let us see if other 

 equally marked instances cannot be readily pointed out 

 as occurring in the same locality. Late in February, 

 1885, I spent a few days on the Pennsylvania shore of 

 the Delaware, at Bristol, ten miles away, as the crow 

 flies, and there, in the thrifty evergreens along that 

 beautiful river- bank, were purple finches. Not one 

 finch, but many. Now, here there are pine-trees as 

 tall, cedars as dense, cosey nooks as sunny, food, I sup- 

 pose, as abundant, yet not once this long winter has the 

 song of the purple finch enlivened my rambles about 

 home. If they come at all, it is but to look about in 

 disgust, and soon, with a loud twittering of discontent, 

 away they go. I am told that about Bristol these birds 

 are common winter residents. I know that about the 

 same river, some ten miles up the stream, they are never 

 abundant. 



Again, the black-throated buntings, on the higher 

 grounds and colder clay-soils, above the limits of tide- 

 water, are abundant year after year. The sandy soils 

 of the region south of the rocky ridge upon which the 

 clay-soils rest offer these buntings no attraction, and it 

 is a rare experience to see one of them there. 



In a lesser degree the same is true of the arctic snow- 

 bird and the horned larks. These birds are often com- 

 mon on clay-soil areas, and very rare in the lower-lying 

 sandy fields. They prefer as low a temperature as we 

 can offer, and their preference for the localities men- 

 tioned is explained, at least in part, by the fact that it 



