BIRDS OF NEW YORK 35 



haunts of the boboHnk, soHtary vireo, and the hermit and Wilson thrushes." 



This quotation from Dr Merriam meets the conditions throughout western 



New York excepting that the southern mole and Bobwhite are rare or 



absent in most localities and the Solitary vireo seems to be more allied 



with the Canadian fauna. The same statement might be applied to the 



borders of the Catskill and Adirondack regions, as far as the spruce and 



fir line. 



The Canadian zone comprises the southern part of the great trans- 

 continental coniferous forest of Canada, the northern parts of Maine, New 

 Hampshire, and Michigan, the Green mountains, Adirondacks and Cats- 

 kills, and the higher mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, 

 western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. Among the many char- 

 acteristic mammals and birds of the Canadian zone are the lynx, marten, 

 {)orcupine, northern red squirrel, varying rabbit, star -nosed and Brewer's 

 moles, voles, long-tailed shrews, northern jumping mice, white-throated 

 sparrow, Blackburnian and yellow-rumped warblers, olive-backed thrush, 

 tlaree-toed woodpecker, spruce grouse, crossbills, and Canada jays. 



The Adirondack country, after the spruce and fir line is passed, is ptirely 

 Canadian in its fauna, but the AUeghanian birds, which surround it on all 

 sides, invade it along the cleared tracts and river valleys. All the mammals 

 and birds mentioned above as characteristic of the Canadian zone breed 

 in the Adirondacks. In the Catskills a higher altitude must be reached 

 before the Canadian plants and animals are met with but the higher sum- 

 mits are all Canadian although the Spruce grouse, Canada jay, and Ameri- 

 can three-toed woodpecker are not natives of that country. The highlands 

 along the Pennsylvania border in southwestern New York and numerous 

 swamps and ravines in eastern New York, the central lake region, and 

 western New York, wherever the altitude is above looo feet, are strongly 

 tinged with the Canadian fauna, showing all gradations from the condi- 

 tion exhibited in the Catskills to that found in Bergen swamp, Genesee 

 county, and the smaller gullies of the lower Finger Lakes, where two or 

 three Canadian birds may be found nesting with the generally distributed 

 transition species. 



The following chart will illustrate the distribution of all our breeding 

 species in the three life zones of New York. 



