INTRODUCTORY 



XI 



Of the birds occurring in the State and not men- 

 tioned in this volume forty are ducks and geese, the 

 rest being either rare migrants or subspecies, confus- 

 ing to the observer and usually impossible to differ- 

 entiate tvithout a gun. The seabirds, usually omitted 

 from non-technical bird books in the East, are so 

 conspicuous a part of California Avifauna that 

 no work on the subject would be complete without 

 them. 



Field notes begun in 1894, and made with the aid 

 of powerful binoculars, form the basis of the follow- 

 ing pages. The books used for reference, wherever the 

 author's personal observations were unsatisfactory, 

 are " Ridgway's Manual of North American Birds, '' 

 Bendire's " Life Histories, " Loomis's '' Water Birds 

 of California," Mrs. Bailey's " Manual of Birds of 

 the Western United States," Davie's " Nests and 

 Eggs of North American Birds," '' The Condor, " 

 "The Auk," "The Nidologist," Nelson's "Report 

 of Birds of Alaska," and Mr. Grinnell's " Check-hst 

 of California Birds." The check-list numbers and 

 nomenclature of the American Ornithologist Union 

 have been strictly adhered to. 



No originality is claimed for the technical descrip- 

 tions of the birds, as on this point the author has 

 drawn freely from standard authorities, oftentimes 

 verbatim, when a personal examination of specimens 

 was impossible. 



