A REVIEW OF THE SUMMER BIRDS OF A PART OF 
THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, WITH PREFATORY 
REMARKS ON THE FAUNAL AND FLORAL FEA- 
TURED OF THE REGION. 
UR present knowledge of the birds, if it cannot as truly be said 
the entire vertebrate fauna, of our great Appalachian chain of 
mountains, with the exception of a few limited sections, is virtually 
reducible to a recognition of the law of latitudinal equivalent in alti- 
tude obtaining in the distribution of terrestrial life, qualified by obser- 
vations scanty and sporadic. 
Notwithstanding the ease of access and popularity as summer 
resorts of many sections of this great mountain system, and its im- 
portance from a zoological standpoint, few parts of it are so satisfac- 
torily treated in our ornithological literature as are portions of the 
distant ranges of the West. Until recently, it could not be said that 
we had anything at all comprehensive or authoritative pertaining to 
the birds of any part of this system, and the extent of our published 
knowledge of its ornithology could almost be summed up in the con- 
tents of a few isolated notes and of scanty facts scattered through 
biographical matter. Indeed the bird biographies of Wilson and 
Audubon furnish important facts relating to this subject which still 
remain without other authority. 
It is this state of our knowledge which so urgently demands all 
facts in point, whether for actual increase or merely for verification, 
