Bird Studies in Lorain County, Ohio. 39 



studied, but far less thoroughly than these. Furthermore, 

 the records for these five routes are so nearly the same as 

 regards number of trips and time spent on each trip, that a 

 fairly reliable comparison may be drawn. 



Route No. 1, represents the sand-stone knoll and Chance 

 Creek gorge region of the county, where coniferous trees are 

 much in evidence, and where vegetation is allowed to have 

 its own way largely, thus affording the best possible covers 

 in severe weather. The lake shore part of this route and 

 of the two following ones overlap somewhat and the records 

 for the lake have been kept distinct from the inland parts of 

 the routes. Route No. 2, is distinctively a stream gorge 

 route, and represents scarcely anything but the Beaver Creek 

 fauna. It is a rich fauna. Route No. 3, is just as distinctly 

 an overland field and woods route with no stream gorge 

 anywhere, because no considerable stream is crossed. 

 Route No. 4, and 5, represent the field and woods region 

 bordering the shallow gorge of the west branch of Black 

 River. They are somewhat different, both including some ot 

 the deeper woods of this part of the county. These five 

 routes are fairly representative of the county, at least west of 

 the west branch of Black River and the main part of the river 

 from Elyria to the lake. 



Oberlin, the focus of these five routes and always the 

 starting point for the day's work, lies in a plane region 250 

 feet above Lake Erie. Into this plane region the streams 

 have cut their winding courses, each from a pattern of its 

 own. Black River and its tributaries, above the junction of 

 the east and west branches, has formed a shallow and broad 

 gorge, in which abandoned channels have formed long nar- 

 row marshes or lagoons with more or less heavily timbered 

 borders. Here the pawpaws flourish, forming thickets for 

 the winter sparrows. The whole course of this stream and 

 its principal tributaries is fringed with sycamore trees of 

 considerable size. Wild grapes and the bitter sweet are not 

 numerous here, but many apple orchards bordering or 



