TRANSACTIONS OF THE IDntuean jlorieig of Wew IJork VOLUME O 3ST E . FRONTISPIECE-PORTRAIT OF LINN^US. THE VERTEBRATKS OF THE ADIRONDACK REGION. NORTHEASTERN NEW YORK. (General Introduction — Mammalia: carnivora.) BY CLINTON HART MERRIAM, M. D. IS NOT THE FISH CROW (Corrus ossifragus Wilson) A WINTER AS WELL AS A SUMMER RESIDENT AT THE NORTHERN LIMIT OF ITS RANGE? BY WILLIAM DUTCHER. A REVIEW OF THE SUMMER BIRDS OF A PART OF THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS WITH PREFATORY REMARKS ON THE FAUNAL AND FLORAL FEATURES OF TDK REGION. BY EUGENE PINTARD BICKNELL. Published by the Society, December, 1882. NEW YORK : PRESS OF L. S. FOSTER, 35 PINE STREET. MDCCCLXXXI1. Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google Copies of this volume can be obtained of the Corresponding Secretary of the Society. Price, Paper cover, .. $2.00 " Cloth binding, .. 3.00 Purchasers in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe may be sup plied through W. WESLEY, 28 Essex Street, Strand, London. Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google THE LINN£AN SOCIETY OF NEW YORK was founded March 7, 1878, by the following-named gentlemen :— H. B. Bailey, Franklin Benner, Eugene P. Bicknell, John Burroughs, Harold Herrick, Dr. Frederick H. Hoadley, Ernest Ingersoll, Newbold T. Lawrence, C. Hart Merriam, William C. Osborn. The original Officers were C. Hart Merriam, President. Harold Herrick, Vice-President. Ernest Ingersoll, Secretary. H. B. Bailey, Carres. Secy and Treasurer. Abstracts of the proceedmgs of the Society, and papers read before it, have appeared in different scientific serials, but much valuable matter has been withheld from lack of a direct medium of publication. The necessity for such an organ has now become manifest, and the present volume is designed to be the first of a series in which papers coming before the Society may be permanently preserved. The'frontispiece accompanying this number is after an old engraving in the possession of Mr. L. S. Foster, by whom it is contributed. a&&& 0-'i 1 Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. I882--83. President : EUGENE P. BICKNELL. Vice-President : H. B. BAILEY. Recording Secretary : L. S. FOSTER. Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer NEWBOLD T. LAWRENCE, 4 Pine St., New York City. Committee on Publication : EUGENE P. BICKNELL, C. HART MERRIAM, M. D., NEWBOLD T. LAWRENCE. Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google The Vertebrates of the Adirondack Region, NORTHEASTERN NEW YORK. BY CLINTON HART MERRIAM, M. D. |F1R3T INSTALMENT Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google Read in part before the Linnnean Society of New York, January 14, 1882. Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 1. Location and Boundar1es. 2. Geolog1cal H1story. Geology ; Soil. Topography. 3. Character of Mountains; Altitudes; Black River side; Champlain side; Natural Avenue from New York to the St. Lawrence, below Montreal ; Characteristic Birds of the mountains and valley about Lake George. 4. Climate. Snow ; Temperature ; Relation between Temperature and Altitude ; Sudden Changes of Tem perature ; Rain-fall; Humidity, and its Influence upon Vegetation. 5. General Features. Marsh Plants upon High Mountains ; Peculiarities of Valleys ; of Mountains ; Windfalls ; De vastating Fires ; A Walk through the Forest ; Winter; Autumn ; Mixed Flocks. 6. Botany. Forest Trees ; Undershrubs ; Smaller Flowering Plants and Herbs ; Mosses ; Lichens. 7. Faunae Position. As Illustrated by the Mammals ; Birds ; Lepidoptera, and Plants. Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google CONTENTS (Continued.) CHAPTER II. MAMMALIA CHAPTER III. AVES. CHAPTER IV. REPTILI A. CHAPTER V. BATRACHI A. CHAPTER VI. PISCES. Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google Chapter I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION, l.-LOCATION AND BOUNDARIES. TTrN general terms the Adirondack Wilderness may be said to em- 4IL brace that portion of New York State lying to the north of the Mohawk Valley, and included between Lake Champlain on the east and the valley of the Black River on the west. These limits, however, include much territory not properly belonging to the region under consideration, for its boundaries are njore or less irregular, and in many places fall short of the limits above defined. The Adirondacks proper, or the area to which the subject-matter of this paper is restricted, can be stated, with sufficient exactness, to lie between parallels 430 1 5' and 440 45' north latitude, hence meas uring about an hundred and twenty miles ( 193, 1 2 1 metres) in a north and south direction. The transverse diameter of the region is approximately of equal extent. A large area on its western border is well known by the " name of Brown's Tract," and the whole territory is frequently " spoken of as the North Woods." It covers more or less exten sive portions of twelve counties, namely : St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Lewis, Herkimer, Hamilton, Essex, Warren, Oneida, Ful ton, Saratoga, and Washington. 2.- GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. From a geological stand-point, the Adirondacks are interesting as constituting one of the few islands that rose above the level of 2 9 Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google IO GENERAL INTRODUCTION. the mighty Continental sea, previous to Paleozoic time. Its stern Archaean shores were washed by the waves of countless ages before the undermost strata of the Lower Silurian were deposited upon them, entombing and preserving many of the Trilobites, Brachio- pods, and other curious inhabitants of that vast ocean. This Lower Silurian zone marked the shore line, so to speak, of the ancient island, and consists of Potsdam sandstone and the lime rocks of the Trenton period. Though broken and interrupted, enough of it still remains to afford us tantalizing glimpses of the life of the time, torn pages of fragmentary chapters that constitute but a half- told story to excite our imagination and regret. The old Archaean centre, which we call the Adirondacks, is made up mainly of gneiss, and includes areas of syenite, hypersthenite, granite, iron ore, and other metamorphic rocks. The soil, therefore, except that resulting from decomposed vegetation, is largely sili- cious sand. 3.--TOPOGRAPHY. The topography of the region is diversified, and in some respects peculiar. The mountains and short ranges of high hills have no regular trend, and conform to no definite axis. They are in no sense a chain of mountains, and have no backbone at all ; but, on the contrary, consist of more or less irregular groups, isolated " peaks, short ranges, and hog-backs," scattered over the entire area — the highest to the eastward. They slope in all possible direc tions, according to the position and courses of the valleys and river beds adjacent. Like the grand old Lawrentian Hills of Canada, and other Archaean mountains, they are bold and rugged, with well-defined and often much broken outlines. Nearly thirty peaks exceed four thousand feet (1,219.20 metres) in height, several are about five thousand (1,524 metres), and one, Mt. Marcy, attains an Generated for member (Columbia University) on 2015-12-16 05:34 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101045582309 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google TOrOGRAHIY. II altitude of five thousand three hundred and forty-four feet (1,628.- 85 1 metres).* The entire region is studded with hundreds of beautiful lakes of va rious sizes and depths, and two of them are upwards of four thousand feet above tide level. The altitude of the western border of this area is nowhere less than one thousand feet (304.80 metres), and in most places is considerably more than this. From the valley of the Black River the slope is gradual, and the flattened summits of the first range of foot-hills form a terrace of great extent. The dense forests that formerly covered this terrace have mostly been destroyed, and it is now a sandy, barren region, overrun with blackberries and other rank undergrowth. Beyond, to the eastward, lie the ranges of low hills and irregularly distributed mountains, with their many lakes and rivers, that indicate the confines of the Adirondacks.