Analytical Kev prepared bv Professor Jones. It has not been thought best to give 

 large iilace to these matters nor to intrude them upon the text, because of the 

 nian\- excellent manuals which already exist giving especial attention to this field. 



The nomenclature is chiefly that of the A. O. U. Check-List, Second Edition, 

 revised to include the Fom-tecnth Supplement, to which reference is made by 

 number. Departures have in a few instances been made, changes sanctioned by 

 Ridgway or Coues. or justified bv a consideration of local material. It is, of 

 course, unfortunate that the publication of the Third Edition of the A. ( ). U. 

 Check-List has been so long delayed, insomuch that it is not even yet available. 

 On this account it has not been deemed worth while to provide in these volumes 

 a separate check-list, based on the A. O. U. order, as had been intended. 



Care has been exercised in the selection of the English or vernacular names 

 of the birds, to oflrer those which on the whole seem best fitted to survive locally. 

 Unnecessary departures from eastern usage have been avoided, anrl the 

 changes made have been carefully considered. As matter of fact, the English 

 nomenclature has of late been much more stable than the Latin. For instance, 

 no one has any difficulty in tracing the Western Winter Wren thru the literature 

 of the past half century: but the bird referred to has, within the last decade, 

 posed successively under the following scientific names: Trof/Iodytcs hiciiialis 

 l^acificus, AnortJiiira Ii. p.. OlbiorchUus h. p.. and Xaiiiius h. p.. and these with 

 the sanction of the A. O. U. Committee — certainly a striking example of how not 

 to secure stability in nomenclature. With such an example before ns we may 

 perhaps be pardoned for having in instances failed to note the latest discovery of 

 the name-hunter, but we have luiml)ly tried to follow our agile leaders. 



In the preparation of plumage descriptions, the attempt to derive them from 

 local collections was partiallv abandoned because of the meagerness of the ma- 

 terials oft'ered. If the work hail been purely British Columbian, the excellent 

 collection of the Provincial Museum at A'ictoria would have been nearly sufficient: 

 but there is crving need of a large, well-kept, central collection of skins and 

 mounted birds here in Washington. .-\ creditable showing is being made at 

 Pullman under the energetic leadership of Professor W. T. Shaw, and the State 

 College will always require a representative working collection. The University 

 of Washington, however, is the natural reposittiry for West-side specimens, and 

 perhaps for the official collection of the State, and it is to be devoutly hoped that 

 its present ill-assorted and ill-housed accumulations may early give place to a 

 worthy and complete display of Washington birds. Among private collections 

 that of Mr. J. M. Edson, of Bellingham, is the most notable, representing, as it 

 does, the patient occupation of extra hours for the past eighteen years. I am 

 under obligation to Mr. Edson for a check-list of his collection (comprising 

 entirely local species), as also for a list of the birds of the ]\Iuseum of the Belling- 

 ham Normal School. The small but well-selected assortment of bird-skins belong- 

 ing to Messrs. C. W. and J. H. Bowles rests in the Ferry Museum in Tacoma. 



