he higher ground, except that in the clearing, is covered by heavy
beech-maple forest.

Several types of habitats are represented in the clearing: in a few of
the cleared ravines a thick growth of sedges and iris occurs; on the
higher ground small areas are dominated by rushes, other areas by
sedges, while the greater part is covered by grass. In parts of the
clearing blackberries and other shrubs have grown up to form thickets,
and in many places, especially along the edges of ravines,
second-growth trees of oak, maple, or beech grow in the thickets or
form small groves.

The mammal habitats found on the preserve may be listed as follows:

_Natural habitats_

Aquatic habitat
Buttonbush-swamp habitat
Shore habitat
Mud-bar herbage habitat
Flood-plain forest habitat
Beech-maple forest habitat
Aerial habitat

_Modified and artificial habitats_

Second-growth, forest and scrub habitat
Cleared-ravine sedge habitat
Cleared-upland rush habitat
Cleared-upland sedge habitat
Cleared-upland blue-grass habitat
Cultivated field habitat
Orchard habitat
Edificarian habitat

It is unfortunate that all of the area in clearing and about half of
the forested area on the preserve has been and is being heavily
pastured by cattle and horses. The presence of stock has changed the
native conditions so much that, so far as interpreting the primitive
mammal associations is concerned, little dependence can be placed on
studies made in that portion of the preserve. The grass and herbage is
extensively eaten off, and many of the shrubs and young trees eaten
or badly mutilated. Under the pastured forest little underbrush or
herbage remains, and the conditions are very poor for small mammals.

In all the forest, in the unpastured as well as in the pastured part,
a number of trees have been cut out in former years, and although no
trees are now being cut down, all the trees and branches which fall
are being cut up for firewood. This results in there being few logs
and little dead brush on the ground, and removes a favorite place for
small mammal nests and runways, as well as largely eliminating as
mammal food the insects and larvae which are dependent on decaying
wood. However, with the exception of the removal of the logs and of a
few trees, that part of the forest to the north of the river is still
in practically its native condition, and it shows no evidence of ever
havin