A SKETCH OF THE HOME OF HTLOCICHLA 

 ALICIyiL BICKNELLI, RIDGWAY, WTPH SOME 

 CRITICAL REMARKS ON THE ALLIES OF THIS 

 NEW RACE. 



BY EUGENE P. BICKNELL. 



That there remained unrecognized at this late day a bird reg- 

 ularly inhabiting one of the most populous portions of our coun- 

 try ; or, indeed, that a species of eminently boreal habitat during 

 its breeding season, and not known to occur at all at such time 

 within the limits of the United States, should have a representa- 

 tive race regularly breeding in our midst, are facts for which we 

 were little prepared. Mr. Ridgway's recent paper* announcing 

 these facts being necessarily of a technical nature, and confined to 

 a formal description of the new Thrush, it has been thought well 

 on the present occasion to allude more particularly to the char- 

 acter of the locality inhabited by the bird, and to some of its asso- 

 ciates there, in connection with other sequential considerations. 

 As the general physical character of the Catskill Mountains and 

 the faunal features of the region will be treated by the writer else- 

 where, it will be unnecessary to extend the range of the present 

 relation from the summit of Slide Mountain in Ulster Co.,t 

 where the new race was discovered. 



On June 15, i88i, nearing the summit of this mountain, the 

 forests of a more northern latitude were forcibly suggested. A 

 shower hadfallen during the ascent, and the sun was still obscured, 



* " Descriptions of two new Tlirushes from the United States." Proceedings U. S. 

 National Museum, Vol. 374, pp. 374-9. 



fThe highest peak of the Catskills,— 4,205 feet altitude. 



BicKNELL on Hylocichla alicice bicknelli. 153 



while a sharp wind from the northwest piercing the wet woods 

 and sighing among the balsams, blasted and weather beaten, 

 heightened an impression of remoteness and desolation. The 

 evergreens, constituting the principal arboreal growth, extended 

 ofl"on all sides, clothing the rocky and moss-grown slopes, and 

 presenting the striking contrast of a young and fragrant second 

 growth clustering about the branchless and spiny trunks of their 

 sires tottering in decay; or. with tangled and matted branches 

 outlined here and there, as we approached the summit, against a 

 grav and cheerless sky. Owing to the comparatively short life 

 of these trees, that high portion of the mountain where their tribe 

 had pitched was brought into grim contrast with its surroundings. 

 Old age and death, continually present invading their ranks, 

 had everywhere left their traces ; flourishing clusters had been 

 stricken in their fellowship, groups and gatherings had been 

 divided and scattered, and like a contagion the destroyer had 

 spread among their hosts. But the younger generations are con- 

 tinually forming their associations, and with green and fragrant 

 grouping filling in deserted chambers and screening the devasta- 

 tion that has gone before, although onl}^ to furnish material for 

 its continuance in the tuture. All this, with an occasional under- 

 growth of greater or less luxuriance, gave a diversified and some- 

 what open character to the surroundings, entirely dissimilar to 

 that of the en\'ironing forest ; conditions, which, in conjunction 

 with humiditv and elevation, have brought this mountain top 

 into some relation with the swampland of a more northern region. 



Reaching a more elevated portion of the ridge where the ground 

 was more level and the surface less rocky, that north-woods tree, 

 the Paper Birch {Betiila papyracea) occasionally appeared, and 

 more abundantly the Mountain Ash. Almost the only remnant 

 of the dense mountain forests below was the Yellow Birch {£e- 

 tula lutea) which, joining the undergrowth, pjsrsisted with small 

 and stunted stature to the sinnmit. On all sides were to be seen 

 the white blossoms of Viburnum lantanoides which, though also 

 found in the valley woodlands, had there long since flowered and 

 was now bearing green fruit. Another characteristic shrub was 

 Amelanchicr canadensis oligocarpa; lower down had been 

 found the var. hotryapium. but here, the northern form was well 

 marked, seeming almost specifically distinct. In the deep, damp 

 moss, covering and filling in the rocks beneath the balsam growth. 



