32 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



wren. When these birds have once been killed off, before their successors 

 can invade the country again by the difficult or circuitous route from their 

 center of abundance in the south, other hard winters appear and thus 

 they are held continually in check. 



The Carolinian faunal area which is the eastern or humid division of the 

 Upper Austral zone defined above, is the warmest of the life areas repre- 

 sented in New York. According to the temperature limits mentioned,this 

 area would include Staten Island, the principal portion of Long Island, 

 and the Hudson valley as far north as southern Saratoga county. "Count- 

 ing from the north, the Carolinian area is that in which the sassafras, tulip 

 tree, hackberry, sycamore, sweet gum, rose-magnolia, red bud, persimmon, 

 and short -leaf pine first make their appearance, together with the opossum, 

 gray fox, fox squirrel, Cardinal bird, Carolina wren. Tufted tit, Gnatcatcher, 

 Summer tanager, and Yellow-breasted chat. Chestnuts, hickory nuts, 

 hazelnuts, and walnuts grow in abundance" [Merriam]. These character- 

 istic plants and animals are well represented in the vicinity of New York 

 city, but, of the birds mentioned the Gnatcatcher and Summer tanager 

 are not known to breed even on Staten Island. As one passes up the Hud- 

 son valley there is less and less evidence of the Carolinian flora, and, of the 

 characteristic birds mentioned above, after the Highlands are passed only 

 the Yellow-breasted chat is an established species. In western New York 

 the sassafras, tulip tree and sycamore are well represented, but the opossum, 

 gray fox and fox squirrel have rarely been taken, and must be regarded as 

 only accidental. All the birds mentioned in the above quotation have 

 occurred in western New York, but only the Yellow-breasted chat is an 

 established breeding species, and is local in distribution. 



The following table will show the proportion of Carolinian elements 

 in the bird fauna of the different districts in New York which have been 

 considered of Upper Austral affinities. The average temperature of the 

 hottest six weeks of summer is taken from the records of the United States 

 Meteorological Bureau. 



