Birds of Allegany Park 277 



of Salamanca, July 14; west of Limestone, July 23; and in the Cold 

 Spring Valley, July 20. Only one bird was seen in each place. 

 Outside the Park area I found two birds west of Salamanca along 

 the river on July 3. 



The song should be carefully distinguished from that of the 

 Savannah Sparrow which it resembles. It sounds like " zip 

 ze-ee-ee-ee " differing from the Savannah by the single " zip " and 

 single long " zee." The song is not so loud but more grasshopper- 

 like than the Savannah Sparrow's. 



The nest of this bird is well hidden in the grass of a meadow. 

 It is made of grasses and usually arched over the top. 



BIRDS OF THE UPLAND THICKETS 



Many birds live mainly in and about low bushes, particularly 

 those that are thick and thorny (plate 26). Such birds are not 

 likely to be found in the forest or among tall trees, nor do they 

 favor open meadows. Almost all small birds are inhabitants of 

 bushes to some extent, as these bushes are a protection from 

 Hawks and other natural enemies. 



In the Allegany Park, thicket areas are common and of several 

 sorts. Areas of natural forest land that have been recently cut 

 form thickets of young sprouts that are either oak and chestnut or 

 maple and beech in type (figure /"/). In other places, hillsides 

 formerly cleared and either cultivated or used for pasture, were 

 later abandoned (figure 78), and these areas have a thicket growth 

 mainly of seedling trees rather than sprouts. Particularly where 

 there have been pastures, other species than the forest trees have 

 come in, such as the thorns (Crataegus Crus-galli and C. coccinea), 

 apple (Pyrus Malus), choke cherry (Prunus virginiana) , and silky 

 dogwood (Cornus Amomum) . There seems to be a greater abund- 

 ance of hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) in seedling thickets, but 

 except for this the tree species are about the same as in the two 

 forest types. There seems to be no great difference in the bird 

 life of the different sorts of thicket. 



Along the stream border are areas that also might be classed 

 as thicket, but with different species of both birds and plants. I 

 have considered this type under the heading : " Birds of the Stream 

 Thickets." 



As thickets grow up to forest, an ecological succession of animals 

 as well as plants results, the thicket birds disappearing and the for- 

 est species taking their place. One may find woodland areas of 

 different ages in the Park that illustrate this. The final change 

 seems to take place when the cover is ten to fifteen feet high, but 

 owing to the denser growth, this occurs sooner in the maple and 

 beech than in the oak and chestnut type. In the same manner, 

 where grasslands slowly grow up to thickets, a succession takes 

 place from birds of the open fields to birds of the dense thickets. 



In addition to the species listed here as occurring in thickets the 

 following, listed under other habitats, are often found there: 



