INTRODUCTION 



I began the collection of titles for a bibliography of California ornithology in 

 1900, while a student at Stanford University. Since then I have taken every 

 opportunity to secure additions to my list, while from year to year I have tried to 

 keep it up to date. Nothing becomes more apparent to one engaged in this kind of an 

 undertaking than the impossibility of ever attaining ideal accuracy or completeness. 

 Three years ago I thought I had a fairly comprehensive bibliography up to that 

 time. But only within a few months have I run across several important titles of 

 early date which had been previously unknown to me. As I could not but suffer 

 continued uncertainty, no matter how long I should withhold this contribution 

 from publication, I present the results of my work as they are now, believing that 

 they will prove of value to every other working bird student, as they already have 

 to me. 



The criterion for inclusion in this bibliography is the pertaining of the article 

 or book, either as a whole or in any part, to the birds of California. I have 

 adhered strictly to the faunal idea. Reference to a species bearing the name '' cali- 

 forniciis'" or '' calif ornianns,'' unless accompanied by a definite indication of its 

 occurrence in California as the State is now restricted geographically, does not make 

 the article worthy of inclusion in this list. Mere mention of "birds", or "water- 

 fowl", or "ducks", or "songbirds", is ignored. 



After accumulating a good-sized sheaf of titles from popular literary and fiction 

 magazines and books, I came to the conclusion that this source is unworthy of cita- 

 tion. Such bird articles are either altogether untrustworthy (often mere frbrica- 

 tions or imaginative productions, of questionable value, even from the literary 

 standpoint), or, if possessing scientific value, popularized modifications or verbatim 

 copies of articles appearing before or afterwards in scientific periodicals, where 

 they are accessible to the ornithologist anyway. I have, therefore, included no 

 titles from newspapers, literary magazines, or sportsman's journals, with the single 

 exception to the latter category, of the earlier volumes of Forest and Stream, and 

 to the former of Hutchings' California Magazine. A list of the serial publica- 

 tions from which I have taken titles is appended to the present paper. 



It may be asked why I have quoted from the "minor ornithological" period- 

 icals, many of which were ephemeral and consisted largely of accounts of boys' 

 egg-hunts. My reason is that incidentally these relatively insignificant and some- 

 what illiterate journals contain records of the former distribution of species, and 

 other valuable data, nowhere else obtainable. All such periodicals aspired to scien- 



