6 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 8 



opinion in regard to the status of various subspecies is based upon my pres- 

 ent understanding of the respective problems as illustrated by the extensive 

 material at hand in the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. 



While the sequence in Orders and Families is practically that of Knowl- 

 ton, the species within each Family are arranged in the main in the order 

 given in Ridgway's Birds of North and Middle Ainerica, as far as the groups 

 have appeared in this as yet uncompleted work. Otherwise the order of 

 species and genera is nearly that of the A. O. U. Check-List. 



As a summary it is of interest to observe that, according to the present 

 enumeration, 530 species and subspecies of birds are attributed to the State 

 of California ; discarding the third term of all trinomials, the number of "full 

 species" is found to be 403 ; 253 Genera are represented, 51 Families, and 

 eleven Orders. 



Species with bracketed numbers are not of regular occurrence within 

 the borders of the state. In other words, while the inclusion of the species 

 so designated rests upon one or more perfectly authentic instances, these 

 are to be considered in the nature of casual, or "accidental", occurrences. 

 There are 55 species out of the whole list, that belong in this category. 



Joseph Grinnell. 

 Berkeley, California, 



July lo, igi2. 



