Flora and Fauna 



that a Scarlet Tanager (Pyranga rubra) will not soon flash 1901 

 like a meteor before his eyes. Likely enough the Kingfisher 

 (Cerp/e Alcyori) will leave his silent perch and with a harsh 

 cry dart down upon his scaly prey. Here, where the thick leaves 

 make a twilight, even at midday, the attentive ear of the student 

 of our birds will listen, with delight, to the bell-like notes of the 

 Wood-thrush or the sweet cadences of the Cat-bird's real song. 



Summary 



This chapter is the first to deal with Niagara in a special 

 aspect. Probably a very large percentage of the visitors to the 

 Falls are more impressed with the beauty and luxuriance of the 

 vegetation than with any other feature excepting the cataract 

 itself. Students of flora and fauna have been numerous among 

 the visitors from the early days down to our time, but it is a 

 curious fact that comparatively few of them have left any record 

 of their visits in scientific literary form. Many of the early vis- 

 itors were keen observers, and we are indebted to some of the 

 more valuable general accounts for glimpses of the flora and 

 fauna of the region as they found it. It is disappointing that 

 Audubon's Journals, while they give us fine descriptive accounts 

 of several of his visits to the Falls, do not put in a readable form 

 the studies of bird life which he made there. 



For our own time we are indebted to David F. Day for sev- 

 eral articles on the flora and fauna of the Niagara region. Some 

 of this work was undertaken at the instance of the Niagara 

 Reservation Commission, and is valuable both for its history of 

 the subject, and its bearing upon the present varieties of plant 

 and animal life to be found at Niagara. 



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