Vill. 
Here also Mr. Geo. C. Cantwell has left his bird-skins, partly local and partly 
Alaskan, on view. 
Fortunately the task of redescribing the plumage of Washington birds has 
been rendered less necessary for a work of such scope as ours, thru the appearance 
of the Fifth Edition of Coues Key, embodying, as it does the ripened conclusions 
of a uniquely gifted ornithological writer, and above all, by the great definitive 
work from the hand of Professor Ridgway,’ now more than half completed. 
These final works by the masters of our craft render the careful repetition of 
such effort superfluous, and I have no hesitation in admitting that we are almost 
as much indebted to them as to local collections, altho a not inconsiderable part of 
the author’s original work upon plumage description in ‘The Birds of Ohio” has 
been utilized, or re-worked, wherever applicable. 
In compiling the General Ranges, we wish to acknowledge indebtedness both 
to the A. O. U. Check-List (2nd Edition) and to the summaries of Ridgway and 
Coues in the works already mentioned. In the Range in Washington, we have 
tried to take account of all published records, but have been obliged in most 
instances to rely upon personal experience, and to express judgments which must 
vary in accuracy with each individual case. 
The final work upon migrations in Washington is still to be done. Our own 
task has called us hither and yonder each season to such an extent that consecutive 
work in any one locality has been impossible, and there appears not to be any one 
in the State who has seriously set himself to record the movements of the birds 
in chronological order. Success in this line depends upon codperative work on 
the part of many widely distributed observers, carried out thru a considerable 
term of years. It is one of the aims of these volumes to stimulate such endeavor, 
and the author invites correspondence to the end that such an undertaking may 
be carried out systematically. 
In citing authorities, we have aimed to recall the first publication of each 
species as a bird of Washington, giving in italics the name originally assigned the 
bird, if different from the one now used, together with the name of the author 
in bold-face type. In many instances early references are uncertain, chiefly by 
reason of failure to distinguish between the two States now separated by the 
Columbia River, but once comprehended under the name Oregon Territory. Such 
citations are questioned or bracketed, as are all those which omit or disregard 
scientific names. ‘The abbreviated references are to standard faunal lists appear- 
ing in the columns of “The Auk” and elsewhere, and these are noted more 
carefully under the head of Bibliography, among the Appendices. 
At the outset I wish to explain the peculiar relation which exists between 
a. Key to North American Birds, by Elliott Coues, A. M., M. D., Ph. D., Fifth Edition (entirely 
revised), in Two Volumes; pp. xli.+ 1152. Boston, Dana Estes and Company, 1903. 
b. The Birds of North and Middle America, by Robert Ridgway, Curator, Division of Birds, U. S. 
National Museum, Bulletin of the U. S. N. M., No. 50; Pt. I., Fringillidae, pp. xxxi.+ 715 and Pl, XX. 
(1901); Pt. II., Tanagridae, etc., pp. xx.+834 and Pl. XXII. (1902); Pt. III., Motacillidae, etc., pp. 
xx. +801 and Pl. XIX. (1904); Pt. IV., Turdidae, etc., pp. xxll.+ 973 and Pl. XXXIV. (1907). 
