14 



Winter Fauna of Mount Marey, 



It may be mentioDed that ray presence among the 

 mountains in the early portion of this winter, was occa- 

 sioned by the work of the Adirondack survey, under the 

 authority of the State, for which work appropriations had 

 been made by the last Legislature, and that the constant 

 duties of the survey permitted only the taking of uaturalhis- 

 tory notes of such matters as came unsought before me. 

 This paper, therefore, is only intended as a brief contribu- 

 tion to the winter history of our mountain fauna — pre- 

 ferable, perhaps, to a mere list of the species observed, 

 which was all that I originally intended to present. 



Winter may almost be said to have a perpetual lease of 

 Mt. Marcy. It is true that about the beginning of July, 

 he finds his banks of snow badly broken by the sun's 

 inroads — beyond his power to remedy — and so takes 

 himself away to his cooler resort, gliding away to the 

 south pole, which now demands his entire energies ; but 

 scarce two months will have elapsed before he will be 

 back ae:ain. 



If snow be the criterion, Mount Marcy has barely two 

 true months of summer. The summit is often whitened 

 with it as late as the beginning of July, and the first of 

 September rarely passes without a premonitory, though 

 temporary, covering of the crest with snow. It is safe to 

 assume that the climatic winter of the summit commences 

 at the latter portion of September or about the first of 

 October, and ends in June. 



Besides mentioning the different species, the presence 

 of which have been determined, I shall call your attention 

 briefly to the principal absentees — animals which once 

 were or are now found in this locality in summer, but 

 which were obviously absent during our stay, though with 

 few exceptions, still met with in the warmer lowlands. 



Studying the fauna in this manner, we find among the 

 most important of. the animals which have left a record of 

 their presence by footprints in the snow — the panther, 



