214 
THE WILSON BULLETIN— December, 1922 
iiiiportaiice which preserves for the future, as for today, the most 
beautiful of the natural resources of the state. 
Practically all of the small state of Massachusetts, like the 
rest of southern New Eiigiand, is Transition country. Of par- 
ticular interest in this region is the relatively cool, northern area 
in which Petersham lies, from the fact that it exhibits a rather 
notable mingling of “northern” and “southern” trees. Thus, in 
the woods of I^etersham grow important trees of the North, more 
or less typical of the Canadian faunal area, like the red pine, 
canoe and yellow birches, sugar maple, beech, basswood and a 
little red and black spruce. On the same ground grow also such 
rather characteristic trees of the central hardwoods region to the 
south (more typical, therefore, of southern Connecticut and the 
Middle States) as the hickory, tnpelo, sassafras, pitch pine and 
various species of oaks, chief of which is, of course, the white oak 
oftentimes so splendidly developed in Massachustts east of the 
Connecticut river. Bnt the trees which dominate chiefly in the 
woods in this section are those Avhich attain or at least approx- 
imate their highest development in central New England — as 
the Avliite pine, red oak, chestnut (before the blight), white ash 
and hemlock. 
There is not enongh of Canadian zonal plant-life in Peters- 
ham for the town to be considered in any sense within the Canad- 
ian faunal zone. It lies only on its very “ragged edge”, so to 
speak. Nor are the Canadian faunal birds that sunimer here 
many. They are few, both as to nnmbers and species. Never- 
theless, such an extensively Avooded area as Petersham, much of 
it of sizable timber, must in the very nature of the case ahvays 
shoAV interesting things in the bird-line. A case in point is the 
1‘ileated Woodpecker, resident here as one Avould natnrally ex- 
pect this typical Avoods-bird to be. As one Avonld naturally 
expect, also, Avhere there is so much Avhite pine, that Avhite pine 
bird par excellence, the Bine-headed Vireo, is not only common 
bnt relatively abundant. Most plentiful ahvays Avhere white 
pines are most plentiful — the more Avhite pines, the more Blue- 
headed Anreos, states the case in a nutshell — the song and the 
delightful minor notes of the Blue-headed Vireo are ever in the 
ear in the pines of the Harvard Forest tracts and in other “stands” 
in town. I have noAvhere else in Massachusetts found the species 
so plentiful except in that other Avhite pine country, sontheast- 
ern Massachusetts, including southern Plymouth Co., but not 
Cape Cod, Avhere it is also a common woodland bird. 
