r
I I i v 1 f vi i
V9 GJJ 3
VOL. IL, NO. 4.
PINEHURST, N. C, NOV. 18, 1898.
PRICE THREE CENTS.
FAUNA OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Interesting Description of the
Animal Life in this State.
Embraces Most of the Species Found in
the United States.
Knowledge ol the Geographic Distribution of
Land Animals Important to the Farmer.
The native living things belonging to a
given region are called its Fauna and
Flora, the former including all animals
and the latter all plants. It is the Fauna
of North Carolina that will now be brief
ly considered.
The distribution of North American
land animals has been ably discussed by
Dr. .1. A. Allen, in the Bulletin, of the
American Museum of Natural History,
of New York, Vol. 4, 1892, and also by
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of the United
States Department of Agriculture, in the
imblications of that department.
The classification adopted by Dr. Allen,
for faunal areas, is more elaborate than
is necessary for use here, and therefore
the division of the North American con
tinent into primary "life zones," by Dr.
Merriam, will be the system employed.
They are as follows :
Tlie Arctic zone, lying north of the
northern limit of tree growth, the land
of the Polar bear, Arctic fox and rein
deer and the Hudsonian zone, the home
of the great moose and embracing within
its limits the upper part of the vast
spruce forests of Labrador and crossing
the continent to Alaska, are not repre
sented in this state.
The Canadian zone takes in the north
ern part of New England, New Bruns
wick, Quebec and northern Ontario, the
southern part of Newfoundland, and ex
tends across the continent to the Valley
of the Yukon, in Alaska, and in spite of
our southern situation, the fauna of this
one occurs in North Carolina along the
crests of the Blue Ridge and the Great
Smoky mountains. The boundaries of
this division with us are, of course, de
U'i mined by the altitude, the lower limit
being about 4,500 feet. Of animals be
longing to this fauna and having a range
to the far north but occurring in this
state may be mentioned the Canada
lynx and the red squirrel, the "boom
er' of our mountains. Among the sum
mer birds are the Carolina snow bird,
mountain solitary viero, blackburnian
warbler, winter wren, redbreasted
ut hatch, etc. It is a remarkable fea
tuK of North Carolina animal life that a
stretch of country lying between the
parallels 34 and 37, as this state does,
should possess among its native animals
and birds species that belong naturally
to a fauna characteristic of the great for
ests of Canada and that reaches on its
northern border to beyond 60 degrees of
north latitude. But to this great degree
does the altitude of our mountain peaks
modify their southern position. This is
the region of such northern trees as the
firs and spruces, forests of which cap the
towering peaks of these North Carolina
mountain chains.
With its upper limit coincident with
the lower limit of the Canadian, we come
next to the transition zone the Alle
ghanian fauna of Dr. Allen. This seems to
be a region in which a mingling of south
ern and northern forms of life is evident,
although its characteristic life is suffic
iently well defined to admit of its recog
nition as a faunal division. Among the
notable animals belonging to this fauna
was, in olden times, the elk or wapiti,
herds of which ranged the mountain
sides and valleys of the western region
of the old North State. But, alas, that
was long ago, and unless reintroduced
and afterwards protected, they will never
range those mountain sides again. Here
also we find that queer animal, the star
nosed mole, which is found even to the
northern limit of the Canadian zone.
Among the summer birds are Wilson's
thrush, yellow-throated vireo, rose
breasted grosbeak. We also find such
southern species of birds as orioles, cat
bird, brown thrasher and suoh animals
as common mole and cotton-tail rabbit
mingling with the above. The lower
limit of this fauna Mr. Brewster places
at about 2,500 feet, but it must be under
stood that the boundaries' of none of
these divisions are, or can be, very sharp
ly defined, as there is necessarily a great
overlapping of species from one to the
other, and this overlapping and mixing
of the life belonging to one zone into
that of another varies very much with
individual localities. That celebrated
weather prophet , the wood chuck or
ground hog belongs here and is by no
means uncommon in suitable localities in
western North Carolina.
Next we come to the zone that covers
a greater amount of the state's area than
any other namely, the Carolinian. This
is not a projecting spur from more north
erly zones running down into the state
only by way of the mountain ranges, as
were the two former, but is more espec
ially a fauna of the Piedmont Plateau
reo-ion and of the western border of the
Coastal Plain region of the state. It is,
as its name implies, distinctively Carolin
ian in its character. The opossum, the
o-ray fox, the fox squirrel, are animals
characteristic of this division, and among
the birds we find such well known south
ern forms as Carolina wren, cardinal or
red-bird, finatcatcher, mocking bird.
The molly cotton-tail is a common and
inextinguishable characteristic feature
here, and pretty much the same might be
said of our chipper and lively little woo
white our partridge, in spite of what
the "quail1' hunters call him.
Beginning near the coast at the ex
treme northeast corner of the state, run
ning southward and westward and
gradually widening on its way down as
latitude modifies altitude we find a strip
of country containing life features much
more tropical in character than those
previously considered. This is the
northern corner of the Austro-riparian or
Louisianian zone. This zone includes
the whole of the south Atlantic coast re
gion, a wide expanse of country border
ing the northern shores of the Gulf of
Mexico and the whole of Florida with
the exception of its extreme southern
coast line. The alligator now begins to
show himself and is plentiful and attains
a large size along the southern half of
our tide-water region. Several species of
the smaller rodents belong to this zone,
notably the cotton rat, rice-field rat
and wood rat, and the marsh rabbit
reaches the northern limit of his range
on the coast marshes of North Carolina.
The peculiar big-eared bat is found asso
ciated with the above, and the change in
bird life is as noticeable as that in mam
mals. The chuck-will's widow takes the
place of the whippoorwill and formerly
this zone received added brilliance in
North Carolina by the presence of the
gaudy and noisy Carolina parrakeet,
now, unfortunately, almost confined to
southern Florida. The great and rare
ivory-billed woodpecker was also a for
mer example of this life division, found
on our coast at least as far north as
Beaufort Harbor, but his day has also,
apparently, gone by. Those interesting
creatures the ground and diamond rat
tlesnakes also come in here, and the cotton-mouth
water moccason is their equal
as an awe-inspiring Austro-riparian rep
resentative. Siren and amphiuma are
two water animals quite characteristic of
this zone, and their bites, like those of
hundreds of other and equally totally
harmless creatures, are regarded as dead
ly poisonous. The great brown pelican
and the swift and graceful swallow-tailed
kite, are both features of this division of
animal life, and the black vulture, that
very useful but not beautiful bird that
seems equally at home in the pure ether
a thousand fathoms above the earth, or
in the dark and odorous interior of a dead
mule, is always with us.
It is a matter of interest, although hav
ing no bearing on present day fauna,
that the huge mastodon once roamed our
fields and forests and the great prehis
toric elephant nearly allied to the
"mountainous mammoth" of the Old
World, was also a North Carolinian iu
davs gone by. So, also, were many other
rare and interesting animals, now only
known by their fossil remains. Loose
bones cf extinct whales, in some cases
a good part of the entire skeleton, have
been found in numerous localities, and in
Halifax county some huge fragments of
the skull were sufficiently entire to give
a good idea of the size of the complete
animal. This whale was identified by
Professor Cope and by him named Meso
teras Ixerrianus in honor of its discoverer,
Professor W. C. Kerr, late state geolo
gist. Its length was estimated at 80 feet,
the largest extinct baleen whale ever
found. Another well known fossil whale
lay across the bed of a creek in the same
county and was used, during low water,
as a footlog.
From the foregoing brief sketch it will
be seen how widely varied is the charac
ter of the animal life belonging to North
Carolina. As Dr. Merriam so truthfully
says in his report as head of the Division
of Ornithology and Mammalogy in the
Year Book of the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture for 1804:
"An accurate knowledge of the areas
which, by virtue of their climatic condi
tions, are fitted for the cultivation of par
ticular crops is of such obvious import
ance to agriculture that the Division of
Ornithology and Mammalogy was early
led to make a special study of the geog
raphic distribution of the land animals
and plants of North America, for the
boundaries inhabited by native species
were believed to coincide with those
suited to the production of particular
kinds of fruit, grain and tubers, and for
the rearing of particular breeds of domes
ticated animals.
"When the boundaries and life zones
and areas are accurately mapped, the ag
riculturist need only ascertain the fau
nal area to which a particular crop or
garden plant of limited range belongs in
order to know beforehand just where it
may be introduced with every prospect
of success, soil and other local modifying
influences being suitable; and in the case
of weeds and of injurious and beneficial
mammals, birds and insects, he would
know what kinds were to be looked for
in his immediate vicinity, and could pre
pare iu advance for noxious species that
from time to time suddenly extend their
range. In short a knowledge of
the natural life areas of the United States
and of their distinctive species and crops,
would enable our farmers and fruit grow
ers to select the products best adapted to
their localities, and would help them in
their battle with harmful species.1
Such being the case, where, indeed, is
the limit to the agricultural possibilities
of a state in which the native animal life
includes such widely different forms as,
say, the Canada lynx, with a range al
most reaching the Arctic Sea, on the one
hand, and on the other, the great Florida
alligator, whose center of abundance is
well within the limits of tropical Amer
ica, the land of the cocoanut, the lemon
and the orange. Xorth Carolina ami Its
Resources.
"De trouble wif some men dat knows
a heap," said Uncle Eben, "is dat dey
hab sech a positive way o tellin' it dat
dey makes folks too mad to listed.'1
Washington Star.