^"iSgS^l Ri\-K.s, Siuiiiiicr Birds of West Vir^niia. I '^ I 



66. Hesperocichla njEvia. N'akikd Turisii. — Tcjlcrahl v coiinnon in 

 the deeper woods ; ilrst; young, scarcely feathered, taken on July 2. I5y 

 August 1, the young began to gather in considerable nuinl^ers and 

 together with the Robins and other Thrushes were feeding on the 

 blueberries. 



THE SUMMER BIRDS OF THE WEST VHiGINIA 

 SPRUCE BELT. 



BY WILLIAM C. RIVES, M. D. 



The portion of the mountain region of the Virginias to 

 which the present paper relates, is spoken of in the following 

 terms in an amusing sketch in ' Harper's Magazine ' for Decem- 

 ber, 1853 (Vol. VII, p. 18). "In Randolph county, Virginia, 

 there is a tract of country containing from seven to nine hundred 

 square miles, entirely uninhabited, and so inaccessible that it has 

 rarely been penetrated even by the most adventurous. The set- 

 tlers on its borders speak of it with dread, as an ill-omened region, 

 filled with bears, panthers, impassable laurel brakes and danger- 

 ous precipices. Stories are told of hunters having ventured too 

 far, becoming entangled, and perishing in its intricate labyrinths." 

 Its features are also depicted in a volume called ' The Black- 

 water Chronicle ' (New York, 1853), which treats of a hunting 

 trip to the locality in question, and a brief allusion will be found 

 in 'Picturesque America,' Vol. I, pp. 390, 391. It is now partlv 

 within the limits of Tucker County, and forms, or we shall soon 

 be obliged to say formed, a part of the black spruce belt of West 

 Virginia. " It is probable," says Major Hotchkiss, an authoritv 

 on the natural resources of the Virginias, " that nowhere in the 

 United States are now existing denser forests than those of black 

 spruce in the belt of country, more than 100 miles in length and 

 from 10 to 20 in breadth, that extends through Greenbrier, Poca- 

 hontas, Randolph and Tucker Counties. Only the northern end 

 of this vast spruce forest has been penetrated by railways, the 



