IN THE CATSKILLS 



observed that it does sometimes annoy them when 

 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 

 degrees, 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 bet- 

 ter 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 

 80 



