34 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
wrens. Copperhead snakes are very plentiful in this region, and under 
one rock 26 of them were discovered. 
We returned to Cranberry Glades, where we lived in a government 
cabin. With squirrel traps on the trees and mouse traps on the 
ground we caught a number of specimens, among which was a new 
form of flying squirrel, since named by Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., of the 
National Museum. This form is somewhat similar to the small flying 
squirrel of the East, but is larger and redder in color. It is related 
to the Canadian species. Among the most interesting birds collected 
from there were a nestling saw-whet owl and a new subspecies of 
song sparrow. Cranberry Glades proved most fruitful for birds and 
mammals. 
For the next 6 days we camped on Shavers River in the Cheat 
Mountains. There we obtained a fine series of bird and mouse skins 
and more specimens of the flying squirrel mentioned above. These 
mountains are cool and damp, with fog every night, unlike others 
of the same altitude in other parts of the State. Deciduous and spruce 
trees thrive on the mountains, and balsam firs grow in the valleys. 
From here we went to Middle Mountain, where we stayed in a forest 
ranger's cabin in a spruce forest. One morning as we started out 
we discovered tracks that seemed to be those of a puma, indicating 
that this animal may still live in the spruce forests of West Virginia. 
After making a profitable collection there, we returned to Washington 
July 10. 
We left Washington for the autumn collecting on September 16, 
1936. At Durbin, W. Va., we obtained the necessary permission to 
camp on Spruce Knob, the altitude of which is 4,860 feet. Our camp 
was 4>55° f eet > and we were usually surrounded by clouds. As ravens 
abound there, we could hear them croaking most of the time. We 
added materially to the collection while we were there, in spite of the 
foggy and rainy weather. We learned from the old inhabitants that 
some time ago several porcupines had been killed on the lower ridges 
of the Knob. 
After a stop at Summersville we continued to Flat Top and Cherry 
Pond Mountains, in the coal-mining region, where numerous birds and 
mammals were obtained. Returning to Huntington, we collected along 
the Ohio River up to Point Pleasant, making a fairly representative 
collection there. We then headed for home, stopping for 2 days at 
White Sulphur Springs, where we obtained the small subspecies of 
flying squirrel for which we had searched in the spring. 
The success of this expedition was due largely to the courtesies and 
cooperation extended to us by local landowners and by the Conserva- 
tion Commission of West Virginia. 
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