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 August 27 a total of two hundred and eighty-five mouse traps set in the upland forest took on the first nights one short-tailed shrew and thirty northern white-footed mice. In addition to these species pine voles and a jumping mouse were trapped on days after the first. One shrew was caught alive August 30, as he was running about on the forest floor at 7:30 A.M. A few tracks of raccoon were seen from time to time on the road leading through the woods. A few fresh burrows of woodchucks were noted at the edges of benches and of ravines. A few red squirrels were seen at different times and two collected. Fox squirrels were rare, being noted only a few times; Mr. Norman A. Wood also saw these squirrels on two occasions in May. One cottontail was shot, in the climax forest. Mr. Wood collected a chipmunk in the climax forest on May 15, 1918, and saw another in the same habitat in May, 1919.
Aerial habitat:
Bats were seen on a few evenings, flying about over the climax forest, and over the adjacent region, but they were extremely rare, and efforts to shoot a specimen failed.