NOTES ON THE LIFE - ZONES IN NORTH CAROLINA 
C. S. BRIMLEY AND FRANKLIN SHERMAN, JR. 
The old-established popular division of North Carolina into 
eastern, middle, and western sections, is familiar to us all. It is 
an interesting fact that a study of the available zoological records 
gives a somewhat similar division of the state into life-zones or 
areas. 
This detailed study of the animal life of the state shows that, 
while a small number of species are widely distributed throughout 
all sections of the state, yet the majority show in some degree, a 
more or less restricted range within our borders, — and it is upon 
a study of all available records of these restricted forms, that our 
provisional map of the life-zones of the state is based. In these 
studies we have depended mainly on mammals, reptiles and batra- 
chians. Fishes have been practically omitted, and birds and 
insects owing to their powers of flight and tendency to wander, 
have been used chiefly for confirmation, and even then we have 
relied principally on records of breeding birds, which would be 
more likely to be within their proper range. 
It has been known that four of the recognized life-zones of North 
America are represented in our state. These are: — 1st, the Cana- 
dian, — 2nd, the Alleghanian (or Transition), — 3rd, the Upper 
Austral (or Carolinian), — 4th, the Lower Austral (or Austro- 
riparian.) 
1 . The Canadian Zone in this state includes only the tops of 
the higher mountains. Aside from a few scattered records the 
places from which we have sufficient data to positively mark as 
belonging to this zone are, the higher altitudes in the Black 
Mountains, Roan Mountain, Grandfather Mountain (including 
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