40 BIRDS OF COLORADO. 



THE HISTORY OF COLORADO ORNITHOLOGY. 



In an old State like Massachusetts or New York whose 

 birds have been studied and written about for nearly two cen- 

 turies, it would be almost a hopeless task to collect and digest 

 the enormous mass of material. In Colorado the case is far 

 diflferent. L,ess than fifty years have elapsed since the first sys- 

 tematic study of Colorado birds was made and but little was 

 done previous to 1870. Yet in twenty-five years many records 

 have been lost and the Colorado list shows already nearly a 

 dozen species known to have been taken in the State, but the 

 data of whose capture, when, where and by whom, cannot now 

 be found. 



This shows that it is high time a permanent record should 

 be made of the principal facts in Colorado Ornithology while 

 these facts are obtainable. 



1807. Pike. The first reference to any birds residing in 

 Colorado is found in Ivieut. Pike's account of his trip through 

 the State. He mentions the raven, magpie, turkey and pheas- 

 ant. From what is now known it seems probable that he refers 

 to corvus corax sinuatus^ pica pica hudsonica^ meleagris gallo- 

 pavo and dendragapus obscurus, but as this is guess work in the 

 case of two of these species, all of them are repeated under 

 the name of the next one who reported them. 



1823. Say. The expedition of Maj. L,ong was accompanied 

 by the first trained ornithologist, who entered the bounds of the 

 present State of Colorado. - Thos. Say has left us records of the 

 capture during that trip of dendragapus obscurus, columba fasci- 

 ata, tyrannus verticalis, pica pica hudsonica, carpodacus mexi- 

 canus frontalis, spinus psaltria^ passerina ajncena, petrochelidon 

 lunifrons, mimus polyglottos, salpinctes obsoletus and merula 

 migratoria. 



1858. Baird. The government parties of the Pacific Rail- 

 road surveys traveled but little in Colorado. The following is 

 a list of all the government expeditions that entered Colorado 

 previous to i860: 



1806-7. Lieut. Pike. Up the Arkansas River to Canon City, across into 

 South Park ; then by a round-about way into the San Luis Valley and to New 

 Mexico. 



