Bird Life about Samar, Southern Clinton Co., Pa. 



BY THOMAS D. BURLEIGH, PITTSBURGH, PA. 



For seven weeks during the summer of 1916, from the 23rd 

 of June to the 12th of August, I was in the Pennsylvania State 

 College Forestry Camp some four miles from Samar, Pa. and 

 in that time I was able to make a fairly thorough study of the 

 bird-life of that region. It is true that necessary work kept me 

 busy five days out of the week, from early morning until even- 

 ing, but the work was entirely out of doors and when a nest 

 was found or an unusual bird seen, there was no objection to 

 my stopping a few minutes to make desired observations. 

 Added to that there were Sundays and Saturday afternoons, 

 with an occasional Wednesday afternoon, so in all, the region 

 was well covered. 



The character of a country always decides its bird -life, so a 

 few words of the general topography of the area worked will 

 not come amiss. The town of Samar is a small country town of 

 some two hundred inhabitants, and is ten miles from the nearest 

 large town. Lock Haven. It lies in a large open valley which 

 runs roughly east and west. To the south, hardly a quarter of 

 a mile distant, begin the first ridges of a range of the Appa- 

 lachians. These have the even, almost unbroken sky-line that 

 is so characteristic of the mountains of central Pennsylvania, 

 an occasional gap coming as a relief in a topography that boasts 

 of no high peaks or out-thrusting clifls. A quarter of a mile 

 from the town Fishing Creek comes out of a narrow gap in the 

 mountains which connects, the Samar Valley with Sugar Valley 

 five miles away. This gap is known locally as the " Narrows " 

 and is well named. Fishing Creek is a famous trout stream; it 

 is large, at most points thirty to fifty feet across, and is always 

 well stocked. Flowing into it, along the length of the "Nar- 

 rows," are occasional smaller creeks, usually from steep, wooded 



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