6 Brewster on Birds of Berkshire Countv, Mass. [January 



Williamstown. The first three days were spent at Williams- 

 town whence excursions were made for several miles in every 

 direction. The surrounding country is hilly and well watered, 

 but sparsel}' timbered, most of the land being under cultivation. 

 In its general features it resembles portions of Worcester County, 

 but the neighboring mountains are of course very much higher 

 than any in Eastern Massachusetts ; indeed, Mt. Graylock, which 

 lies only four miles to the eastward of the town, is the highest 

 point in the State, having an elevation of 3500 feet. 



The woods are composed chiefly of beeches, rock maples, 

 chestnuts, paper and yellow birches, white pines and hemlocks ; 

 with sycamores, Balm-of-Gilead poplars, red maples, elms, and 

 hornbeams {^Cai'pinus americana) along the streams. There are 

 no firs and few spruces except on the mountains. 



'The bird fauna, to my surprise, proved to be not only strictly 

 Alleghanian, but actually identical, save in the apparent absence 

 of two or three species, with that of many parts of Middlesex 

 County, in Eastern Massachusetts. Thus there were Bluebirds, 

 House Wrens, Yellow Warblers, Warbling and Yellow-throated 

 Vireos, Cedar Birds, Purple Martins, Clifi", Barn, and White- 

 bellied Swallows, Purple Finches, Goldfinches, Song Sparrows, 

 Baltimore Orioles, Crow Blackbirds, Kingbirds, Wood Pewees, 

 Least Flycatchers, and Golden-winged Woodpeckers about the 

 cultivated grounds and orchards ; Chickadees, Black-and-White 

 Creepers, Ovenbirds, Redstarts, Wood Pewees, and Red-eyed 

 Vireos in the woodlands ; Savanna Sparrows, Bobolinks, 

 Meadow Larks (not common) , and Red-winged Blackbirds on 

 the meadows and broad, grassy intervale farms ; Wilson's Thrush- 

 es, Catbirds, Maryland Yellow-throats, and Chestnut-sided 

 Warblers in the thickets along water courses ; Grass Finches, 

 Field Sparrows, and Lidigo Birds on the rocky hillside pastures ; 

 and Robins, Crows, and Bridge Pewees nearly everywhere. 

 Among the species apparently absent but to be expected * in such 

 company, maybe mentioned the Wood Thrush, Brown Thrasher, 

 Nashville Warbler, White-eyed Vireo, and Swamp Sparrow. 

 Several of these, as well as others which might be included in the 

 same category, were observed only a few miles distant, but in lo- 



* Several farmers told me that the Quail {Ortyx vir^-iniana) formerly occurred in 

 small numbers, but I obtained no positive proof of this. 



