8 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
by the ground fires which have licked up the leaves and other rubbish, leaving 
the large hardwoods uninjured but burning the resinous butts of the hemlocks 
deeply enough to destroy them. Owing to the admixture of these species, 
and especially to the fact that much of the white pine region as interrupted 
and interlaced with tracts of Jack pine, to be mentioned later, it seems best 
to limit the term Pine Region to those parts which originally were forested 
mainly with the white pine or with this and the Norway pine. What may 
have been the original bird life of these great pine forests is somewhat uncer- 
tain. Study of the few large tracts left gives us some hints, but the varia- 
tions in elevation, geographical position, and local conditions make the 
generalizations based on these instances somewhat unsafe. It is matter of 
common knowledge that the deep forest never holds the abundant bird life 
that is found along its edges or in the more lightly timbered openings. All 
life seems to be more or less repressed and smothered so that reptiles, mam- 
mals, and even insects, as well as birds, seem to have suffered somewhat the 
same effect as the shrubby and herbaceous vegetation which dwindles or 
dies out almost entirely in the deep shade of the pine. 
Characteristic birds of the real pine forest are comparatively few. Among 
them may be mentioned the woodpeckers, particularly the Pileated, Hairy 
and Three-toed, the two species of Nuthatch, the Black-capped Chickadee, 
Brown Creeper and Winter Wren, the Crow, Blue Jay and Canada Jay, the 
Wood Pewee and Olive-sided Flycatcher, the Red-shouldered and Sharp- 
shinned Hawks, the Great Horned, Long-eared, Barred, and Screech Owls, 
the Red Crosshill and Pine Finch, the Hermit Thrush and in some places the 
Olive-back, and several species of Warbler, the most constant being the 
Pine, the Black-throated Green, the Blackburnian and the Black and White. 
The Jack Pine Plains, or the Plains Region, forms a vast, irregular area 
lying mainly within the pine region just described but consisting of those 
sandy and rather sterile plains which lie farther from the water courses and 
are characterized by the abundance of the almost worthless Jack Pine (Pinus 
banksiana), several oaks collectively known as scrub oaks, certain poplars or 
aspens, the low willow (Salix humilis), the pin cherry, chokecherry and service 
berry or shadbush (Amelanchier). The sweet-fern (Comptonia), winter- 
green (Gaultheria), various blueberries (Vaccinium), and the eagle fern 
(Pteridium aquilinum) are equally characteristic among the undergrowth, 
and in favorable places the ground may be matted with the Bear Berry 
(Arctostaphylos) or overgrown with trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens). 
Twenty-one counties in this region aggregate more than two million acres 
of the plains lands, Oscoda county in the northeast alone holding 204,000 
acres, and Newaygo county at the southwest 194,000 acres. 
The summer bird population of these plains is as characteristic as their 
plant life, and includes not less than fifty species, those most frequently met 
with, roughly in order of abundance, being: Vesper Sparrow, Chipping 
Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Robin, Bluebird, Chewink, Nighthawk, House 
Wren, Kingbird, Cedarbird, Wood Pewee, Flicker, Brown Thrasher, Catbird, 
Chickadee, Bluejay, Red-eyed Vireo, Junco, Indigo Bird, Sparrow Hawk, 
White-breasted Nuthatch, Hairy Woodpecker, Black-billed Cuckoo, Gold- 
finch, Cowbird and Hermit Thrush. 
Particular interest is given to the region by the fact that Kirtland’s Warbler, 
the rarest of North American warblers, has been found nesting on the Jack 
Pine plains of two counties, Oscoda and Crawford, and nowhere else in the 
world, though it is a foregone conclusion that it will be found eventually in 
