BULLETIN OF THE NVTTALL 



ON SEVENTY-FIVE DOUBTFUL WEST-COAST BIRDS. 



BY J. G. COOPER, M. D. 



In Ornithological works written previous to 1860 we find many 

 species of birds mentioned as from " California " and the " North- 

 west Coast," which have not been confirmed as from that region, 

 and are therefore not referred to in more recent works. It is an 

 interesting question whether they were always wrongly allocated 

 there, or whether they may not, in many cases, have actually occurred 

 as stragglers, and deserve, therefore, a place in our Fauna. As an aid 

 in deciding these questions, I have compiled a list of all I can find, 

 with such remarks as seem required respecting the chances of their 

 occurrence, based on my own experience as a collector there for 

 more than twenty years, and the observations of others on their 

 usual range of distribution. 



In 1852 Professor Baird published in Stansbury's Report of his 

 Exploration of the Great Salt Lake, p. 327, a list of such species as 

 were then known, including all given by authors as from west of the 

 Mississippi, but not figured by Audubon. The one hundred and 

 fifty-three nominal species included ninety-one from the Pacific 

 slope, of which only twenty have not been since confirmed as 

 belonging to our Fauna. Most of these were referred to again in 

 his " Birds of North America." Mr. Cassin undertook to figure 

 and describe " all " of these in his " Illustrations," but was un- 

 doubtedl}' saved from the repetition of many errors by the extensive 

 collections soon after made by the Pacific Railroad Expeditions, 

 although he has introduced several not since found in the United 

 States. 



In Volume XIT, Part II, p. 288, of the Pacific Railroad Reports 

 (" Natural History of Washington Territory ") Dr. Suckley and 

 myself, in 1859-60, printed a hastily prepared list of birds, not 

 confirmed by us as from the " Northwest Coast," most of which, 

 however, do not require to be excluded at present, only twenty 

 out of one hundred and twenty-three coming into this list. I 

 have carefully reviewed every accessible authority, and included 

 only such as are distinct species and not represented within the 

 regions named by geographical races or near analogues, which might 



