3 ]m 



THE OUTDOOR WORLD. 



93 



The Mammals of Sing Sin§:^ New York. 



15Y A. K. FISHER, M. D., WASHINGTON, D. C. 



HE village of Sing Sing is situated on the east bank of the Hudson 



Y River a little more than thirty miles north of New York City, and 

 about two miles south of the true mouth of the Croton River. 



The famous Tellers (now Croton) Point is in full view from the vil- 

 lage and forms a picturesque peninsula several miles in extent between 

 the broad cove-like expansion of the Croton and Hudson Rivers. 



The territory covered by the present paper includes the townships 

 of Ossining, Mount Pleasant, and portions of New Castle, Yorktown, 

 and Cortlandt, all situated east of the Hudson. 



The surface of the country is very rough and uneven and is made up 

 for the most part of nearly parallel series of rugged knolls or broken 

 ridges which have a general trend from northwest to southeast. Some 

 of the eminences rise to nearly eight hundred feet above the surface of 

 the Hudson, which is practically at sea-level. The prevailing rocks are 

 an imperfect granite and gneiss with outcroppings of dolomitic lime- 

 stone. The principal valley lands and less rugged hills have been 

 claimed for agriculture and grazing purposes, yet the greater part of 

 the surface is still covered by forests and undergrowth. 



The streams and springs are numerous, though the majority of the 

 ponds are of artificial origin. 



Excepting the red cedar i^Jimiperus virginiand) the hemlock [Tsuga 

 ca7iadensis) is the most common evergreen, and still covers many of the 

 ridges. On Croton Point there stands (or did a few years since) several 

 fine examples of this noble tree, with trunks twelve to fifteen feet in 

 circumference. The pitch-pine [Finns rigida\ yellow-pine {P. mttts), 

 and the ground hemlock {Taxus) occur, the latter species as far as we 

 know, only along the cold west bank of the Croton. In this connection 

 it may be of interest to state that several herbaceous plants and two 

 shrubs, the moosewood [Acer pennsylvanicuni) and red berried elder 

 [Sanibucus pubens) occur in this region only on Croton Point — a locality 

 of great fascination to the botanist. 



The deciduous woods and groves are rich in variety, containing 

 many common species as well as stragglers from the north orthe south. 

 The drier and upland woods are composed of chestnut, red, white, and 

 black oaks, black birch, tulip, beech, iron wood [Ostryd) and flowering 

 dogwood, while those of the swamps and lowlands are made up of 

 maple, pepperidge [Nyssd), swamp white oak, ash, elm, hornbeam 

 [Carpmus)^ yellow birch and many others. Besides all these a few 



