168 



the^ Chain Snake and Brown Swift, and the Buzzard and many other 

 species among the birds." 2 C. Hart Merriam, in his "Review of the 

 Birds of Connecticut," 3 has clearly brought out the fact, previously 

 alluded to by Mr. H. A. Purdy, 4 that the avi-fauna of Connecticut, ex- 

 hibits a marked Carolinian tinge along its southern border. Merriam 

 adds, furthermore, that this tinge is especially well-marked about the 

 mouth, and "runs up the valley of the Connecticut River, extending 

 completely through the State, and even into Massachusetts." The 

 valley of the Connecticut exhibits, in this respect, precisely similar 

 conditions to those presented by the Hudson River Valley. 



Prof. J. A. Allen wrote, 5 in 1871, "On the Atlantic coast this fauna 

 [Carolinian] includes Long Island and a small portion of Southeastern 

 New York." He also enumerated thirty-two species as being in a 

 general way "limited in their northern range" by this fauna, adding 

 that a few of them occur also "as stragglers in the Alleghanian 

 Fauna." Mr. Eugene P. Bicknell has recently published an excellent 

 paper, in the "Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club" (Vol. Ill, 

 No. 3, July, 1878), entitled "Evidences of the Carolinian Fauna in the 

 Lower Hudson Valley. Principally from observations taken at River- 

 dale, N. Y." In this article, the author entirely confirms Mr. Allen's 

 views concerning the Carolinian Fauna in Southeastern New York ; 

 proving that the lower Hudson, about Riverdale (near New York 

 City), is furnished with a considerable number of species, many of 

 them quite common summer residents, which belong strictly to that 

 division of fauna, known to ornithologists as the Carolinian. Mr. 

 Bicknell remarks : 



"The boundaries of faunal areas are usually of an extremely irregu- 

 lar nature, and in their territorial relations contiguous faunae often 

 present a series of mutual interpeuetrations, the apparent invasion of 

 one province of an adjoining district of course being coincident with 

 an opposite extension or penetration of the invaded territory. Thus 

 from near the northeastern boundary of the Carolinian Fauna two 

 main branches emanate, one striking up into the valley of the Hud- 

 son; the other extending along the Connecticut coast and into the 

 Connecticut valley, through which reaching the Massachusetts border. 

 The relations between these two tributaries at their junction with the 

 main body of the fauna to which they belong, or their consolidation 

 before reaching that point, is at present but very superficially under- 

 stood ; but from what knowledge we have in the matter it would 



s Zoology of New York, Part I, Mammalia, Preface, p. 10, 1844. 



3 Transactions of the Connecticut Academy, Vol. IV, pp. 1 to 150, 1877. 



Am. Nat., Vol. VII, No. 11, p. 693, Nov., 1873. 



"Bull. Mas. Comp. Zool., Vol. II, pp. 393, 394, April, 1871. 



