Winter Fauna of Mount 31arcy. 



23 



the Lapland (P. lajyponicus) were noticed. A small bird, not 

 recognized, was seen feeding upon the cones of the 

 spruce. 



In entomology but few observations were made. In- 

 sects are the creatures of the summer. Bleak snows and 

 freezing temperatures prohibit their appearance. During 

 the latter portion of last October, the snows on Mount 

 Marcy half disappeared from the open mountain in conse- 

 quence of a thaw. This snow had been six inches deep in 

 the valleys, a thousand feet below the summit. At this 

 time I noticed fluttering above the chilly rocks of the open 

 sum.mit, above the timber line, a few solitary insects. A 

 small moth which I caught proved entirely unknown to our 

 accomplished State entomologist, and was forwarded by 

 him to Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., for examination. Dr. 

 Packard recognizes it as the (Cheimatobia), Operhoptera 

 boreata found in difi:erent portions of the country, and ac- 

 cording to the doctor, " abundantly in Alaska." I also 

 found a beetle during this thaw crawling upon the very 

 summit of the peak. 



In the spruce forest of the Panther gorge, at the foot of 

 the mountain, many of the trees were observed to have 

 been attacked by insects, probably the small beetles de- 

 scribed by the State botanist in a recent paper before this 

 Institute {Hylurgus nifipennis and Apate rufipmnis Kirby). 

 These trees were the resort of wood-peckers, who seemed 

 to have a most active interest in the beetles or insects, 

 piercing the bark everywhere, in search of them, and co- 

 vering the snow at the foot of the trees with the fragments 

 of bark. 



Turning from the consideration of the animals which we 

 have found in this cold upland region in winter, to those 

 which, though their presence in such a locality might have 

 been expected, are absent, we find the principal absentees 

 to be : — 



