Summer Birds of Adams and Franklin Counties, 

 Pennsylvania 



BY J. FLETCHER STREET 



The need of more information on the bird life of south 

 central Pennsylvania just north of Mason and Dixon's line led 

 to an interesting trip through Adams, Franklin and Cumber- 

 land Counties during the middle of June 1920. 



Thanks to the hospitality of W. L. Baily the trip was made 

 by automobile starting from his home in Ardmore, early on the 

 morning of June 16, S. N. Rhoads, Witmer Stone and J. 

 Fletcher Street being the other members of the party. The 

 car was loaded with all the necessities incident to such an 

 expedition, and with luncheon enough to carry us through the 

 first day, thanks to the attention of Mrs. Baily. 



Having no desire to make observations in the more eastern 

 counties, which have been more thoroughly studied by orni- 

 thologists, we sped rapidly along over the Lincoln Highway 

 through Montgomery and Chester Counties, over the rolling 

 hills which form the water-shed between the Delaware and 

 Schuylkill drainage and down into the broad Chester Valley. 

 A changing panorama of country scenery was ever flashing by; 

 low woodlands whence came the songs of Wood Thrush and 

 Ovenbird, open meadows with their nesting Redwings, and the 

 familiar chants of Yellow- throats and Song Sparrows; high 

 ridges with gaunt trunks of dead chestnut trees victims of 

 the blight, and upland fields where Meadowlarks took wing 

 as we sped by. Next we crossed the hills separating the 

 Chester and Pequea Valleys and passed through at the Gap, 

 between the Welsh Mountain and the Mine Ridge, entering 

 Lancaster County, the richest agricultural county in the State. 

 Here intensive farming has minimized the woodland and bird 

 life is almost entirely confined to open-ground species. There 



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