e
ravines are forested with trees mostly of the flood-plain type, and
there is evidence in many of the ravines, at least in their lower
parts, that flooding occurs in the ravine bottom during the spring.

Fifty mouse traps set August 26 in a large ravine north of the county
road took on the first day five northern white-footed mice and one
house mouse. Short-tailed shrews, more white-footed mice, and pine
voles were trapped on following days. Here also red squirrels and a
cottontail were seen, and tracks of raccoon noted. Evidently the fauna
is the same as that of the flood-plain, with which it is here included.

_Beech-maple forest habitat_:

_Blarina brevicauda talpoides._ Short-tailed shrew. 7.

_Procyon lotor lotor._ Raccoon. Tracks.

_Peromyscus leucopus noveboracensis._ Northern white-footed
mouse. 86.

_Microtus pinetorum scalopsoides._ Northern pine vole. 5.

_Zapus hudsonius hudsonius._ Hudson Bay jumping mouse. 1.

_Marmota monax monax._ Southern woodchuck. Burrows.

_Tamias striatus lysteri._ Northeastern chipmunk. 1.

_Sciurus hudsonicus loquax._ Southern red squirrel. 10.

_Sciurus niger rufiventer._ Fox squirrel. 7.

_Sylvilagus floridanus mearnsii._ Mearns cottontail. 1.

The climax forest of the region is dominated by the beech, _Fagus
grandiflora_, and the sugar maple, _Acer saccharum_. The trees in this
forest are very large, so that the forest crown is high and the shade
dense. Only a few small trees occur and these are mostly young beeches
and young sugar maples. The underbrush varies much in height and
denseness; mostly it is quite open, so that one can easily walk
through the forest, but in a few places the growth is more dense.
Common members of the underbrush on the higher ground are the small
beeches, sugar maples, and the spice-bush, _Benzoin aestivale_; while
on the lower benches along the river seedlings of the paw-paw dominate
the undergrowth. The ground is heavily covered by decaying leaves and
a little dead brush and fallen branches, but nearly all the logs have
been removed. Early in the spring a thick growth of herbs covers the
ground, but by July the herbs are mostly gone, only a few remaining,
and there are many small bare areas covered only by leaves. The soil
under this forest seems to be mainly clay; in spring or after heavy
rains pools of water are formed, and these remain for a long time.

Between July 21 and