6 BIRDS OF ARKANSAS. 



took place in the bed of the Mississippi River. 1 Evidences of these 

 remarkable disturbances still remain; parts of the bed of Big Lake 

 are covered with a fallen forest of hardwoods of species usually 

 found on high ground, and in Reelfoot and other lakes many dead 

 stubs of old cypresses stand in deep water far from the present shore 

 line. In late summer and fall most of the lakes and rivers in the 

 Sunken Lands shrink greatly in size and some become entirely dry. 

 From November to March this region is populated with countless 

 numbers of waterfowl of many species. In spring and summer it fur- 

 nishes ideal breeding grounds for wood ducks, cormorants, snakebirds, 

 herons, egrets, and many species of small land birds, but the larger 

 birds, particularly the egrets, have in recent years been greatly 

 reduced in numbers by indiscriminate shooting. 



All the counties bordering the Mississippi River are similar in 

 topography to the Sunken Lands, but the proportion of overflowed 

 and swamp land is considerably less. Extensive areas of inundated 

 bottom lands are foimd also in the valleys of Black River, White 

 River, Cache River, and the Arkansas below Little Rock. The 

 lowlands of the State support a magnificent growth of the finest 

 hardwood timber, much of which is still in its primeval grandeur. 

 Large bodies of cypress and tupelo gum occupy the swamps and wet 

 bottoms along the larger rivers. 



In Lonoke, Prairie, and Arkansas Counties considerable tracts of 

 level prairie land, formerly of little value for agriculture, have 

 recently become valuable through the successful introduction of rice 

 farming. Smaller areas of prairie land occur in other parts of the 

 State, chiefly in Sebastian and Logan Counties. 



From the bottom lands of the eastern counties the land rises 

 gradually to the westward, becoming hilly through the middle of 

 the State and mountainous in the northwestern and west central 

 parts. In the southwest occur large tracts of pine timber of two 

 species, Pinus ecJiinata and P. tseda. 



THE OZARK REGION. 



This region occupies the northwestern part of the State north of 

 the Arkansas Valley from Izard, Stone, and Cleburne Counties west- 

 ward. It is a rough, mountainous area, varying in altitude from 

 1,000 to 1,800 feet, with a few peaks reaching somewhat above 2,000 

 feet. The prevailing forests are of deciduous trees, with considerable 

 tracts of mixed pine and hardwood timber. Small land birds are 

 numerous in this region, and several northern-breeding forms, such as 

 the whippoorwill, yellow warbler, brown thrasher, and robin, find 

 their southern limit here. 



i For a full account of this earthquake, see N. S. Shaler, Atlantic Monthly, XXIV, pp. 549-559, 1869. A 

 brief account Is given also in Bull. 230 (Part I), Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Dept. Agric, 1911. 



