Vi. 
In the matter herein recorded account has of course been taken of nearly 
all that has been done by other workers, but the literature of the birds of Wash- 
ington is very meager, being chiefly confined to annotated lists, and the conclusions 
reached have necessarily been based upon our own experience, comprising some 
thirteen years residence in the State in the case of Mr. Bowles, and a little more 
in my own. Field work has been about equally divided between the East-side 
and the West-side and we have both been able to give practically all our time to 
this cause during the nesting seasons of the past four years. Parts of several 
seasons have been spent in the Cascade Mountains, but there remains much to 
learn of bird-life in the high Cascades, while the conditions existing in the Blue 
Mountains and in the Olympics are still largely to be inferred. ‘Two practically 
complete surveys were made of island life along the West Coast, in the summers 
of 1906 and 1907; and we feel that our nesting sea-birds at least are fairly well 
understood. 
Altho necessarily bulky, these volumes are by no means exhaustive. No 
attempt has been made to tell all that is known or may be known of a given 
species. It has been our constant endeavor, however, to present something like a 
true proportion of interest as between the birds, to exhibit a species as it appears 
toa Washingtonian. On this account certain prosy fellows have received extended 
treatment merely because they are ours and have to be reckoned with; while 
others, more interesting, perhaps, have not been considered at length simply 
because we are not responsible for them as characteristic birds of Washington. 
In writing, however, two classes of readers have had to be considered,—first, the 
Washingtonian who needs to have his interest aroused in the birds of his home 
State, and second, the seriows ornithological student in the East. For the sake 
of the former we have introduced some familiar matter from other sources, 
including a previous work® of the author’s,and for this we must ask the indulgence 
of ornithologists. For the sake of the latter we have dilated upon certain points 
not elsewhere covered in the case of certain Western birds——matters of abun- 
dance, distribution, sub-specific variety, etc., of dubious interest to our local 
patrons; and for this we must in turn ask their indulgence. 
The order of treatment observed in the following pages is substantially the 
reverse of that long followed by the American Ornithologists’ Union, and is 
justifiable principally on the ground that it follows a certain order of interest and 
convenience. Beginning, as it does, with the supposedly highest forms of bird- 
life, it brings to the fore the most familiar birds, and avoids that rude juxtaposi- 
tion of the lowest form of one group with the highest of the one above it, which 
has been the confessed weakness of the A. O. U. arrangement. 
The outlines of classification may be found in the Table of Contents to each 
volume, and a brief synopsis of generic, family, and ordinal characters, in the 
a. The Birds of Ohio, by William Ieon Dawson, A. M., B. D., with Introduction and Analytical Keys 
by Lynds Jones, M. Sc. One and Two Volumes, pp. xlviii. +671. Columbus, The Wheaton Publishing 
Company, 1903. 
