22 Journal of the Mitchbll Society [May 
one another being brought so closely together in the southern part 
of our mountain section, render it a region of peculiar biological 
interest. 
With regard to this southwestern section of our state, we can- 
not do better than to quote from an article on “An Ornithological 
Reconnaissance of Western North Carolina” by Wm. Brewster, 
published in “The Auk,” January, 1886. He says: 
. . . I have left a valley where Mocking- 
birds, Bewick’s Wrens, and Cardinals were singing 
in water-oaks, sweet -gums and magnolias (all upper 
austral birds and plants) , climbed a mountain side 
covered with oaks and hickories inhabited by Wil- 
son’s Thrushes, Yellow-throated Vireos and Rose- 
breasted Gross-beaks ( Alleghanian forms) , and with- 
in an hour or two from the time of starting found 
myself in a dense spruce forest where Winter Wrens, 
Golden -crested Kinglets and Red-bellied Nuthatches 
(Canadian forms) were the most abundant and char- 
acteristic birds. Indeed, were it possible in the 
present state of our knowledge to indicate accurately 
on the map the relative extent and position of the 
three faunae (life-zones) by using a different color 
for each . . . the work when completed would 
certainly present a strangely patched appearance. 
“The boundaries of these divisions are determined 
chiefly by elevation, the Canadian occupying the 
tops and upper slopes of the mountains down to 
about 4,500 ft., the Alleghanian the mountain sides, 
higher valleys, and plateaus between 4,500 and 2,500 
ft., and the Carolinian (upper austral) everything 
below the altitude last named. ’ ’ 
The authors in preparing this map have chosen to be conserva- 
tive in representing the Alleghanian and Canadian zones, and 
there is doubtless more territorry actually included in each of 
these than the map shows. Furthermore, the extreme northwest 
counties are as yet practically unknown from a zoological stand- 
point, so that, — while we might assign most of its territory on 
hypothetical reasoning, we have preferred to leave it unmarked 
save by an interrogation point. 
Raleigh, N. C. 
