Ornithological Club, prominent subscribers, leaders of social activity and of opinion, 

 financiers, government officials, Audubonists, bird-lovers., artists, editors, photog- 

 raphers, collectors, and business associates — all have cooperated with most commend- 

 able efficiency to make the production of the work an accomplished fact. It is 

 impossible even to enumerate the scores upon scores of well-wishers who deserve 

 honorable mention. In making, therefore, partial acknowledgement of courtesies 

 and debts of honor to those preeminent in service, I ask the indulgence of others not 

 less generous, if unnamed. To the following ladies and gentlemen and institutions 

 my most grateful acknowledgements are due: To Dr. Joseph Grinnell for sponsorship 

 and every courtesy; to Mr. William E. Colby for faithful and otherwise unrewarded 

 service as President of "The Birds of California Publishing Company;" to Messrs. 

 Harry Swarth, H. W. Carriger, F. E. Newbury, A. B. Howell, W. Lee Chambers, H. C. 

 Bryant, and D. H. Schauer for services as trustees in that Company; to Messrs. 

 W. Lee Chambers, A. B. Howell, H. W. Carriger, and H. S. Swarth for personal and pro- 

 fessional cooperation of the most unfaltering type; to Messrs. Leverett M. Loomis, 

 Frank S. Daggett, Barton W. Evermann, Donald R. Dickey, John Rowley, Harold C. 

 Bryant, Tracy I. Storer, Joseph Dixon, L. E. Wyman, Wright M. Pierce, and Adriaan 

 van Rossem for personal and professional courtesies of every sort; to Messrs. A. G. 

 Vrooman, C. I. Clay, Fred Truesdale, Robert Canterbury, and William O. Dawson 

 for valued assistance afield; and to the following for cooperation of every sort, financial, 

 social and personal: Mr. John W. Mailliard, Mr. Joseph Mailliard, Mr. William 

 H. Crocker, Mr. Henry E. Huntington, Miss Annie M. Alexander, Mr. Robert Oxnard, 

 Mr. Rowland G. Hazard, Mr. E. P. Ripley, Dr. David Starr Jordan, Dr. Ray Lyman 

 Wilbur, Mrs. Elizabeth Grinnell, Mrs. Robert J. Burdette, Miss Mary Foy, Mr. 

 O. W. Howard, Mrs. Harriet Williams Myers, Judge H. W. O'Melveny, Dr. Chas. W. 

 Browning, Mr. A. P. Redington, Mr. H. G. Chase, Mr. George S. Edwards, Mr. Joel 

 Remington Fithian, Mrs. Lora J. Moore Knight, Miss Caroline Hazard, Mr. Reginald 

 Fernald, Mr. Frank M. Selover, Miss Donna I. Youmans, Mr. George 0. Knapp, Mr. 

 John B. Henck, Mr. Bernhard Hoffmann, Mr. J. R. Pemberton, Mr. Frank C. Willard, 

 Mr. 0. P. Silliman, Mr. W. A. Strong, Mr. George W. Marston, Mr. John G. Howell, 

 Dr. William Frederick Bade, Prof. Charles E. Kofoid, Dr. Ralph Arnold, Mrs. Agnes 

 Allerton, Miss Aurelia S. Harwood, Miss Kate Ellen Walker, Mr. Frank H. Holmes, 

 Mr. John Lewis Childs, Mr. A. C. Bent, Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Dr. Henry Fairfield 

 Osborn, Mr. P. B. Philipp, Mr. J. C. Harper, Mr. Curtis Hillyer, and Mr. Joseph 

 M. Burnett. 



Mr. Frank Stephens, whose name is deeply imbedded in the annals of ornithology 

 in California, has done me the incomparable courtesy of placing his MS copy of a pro- 

 jected "Birds of California" at my disposal. I am indebted to it for many citations 

 and for additional light upon desert species which this veteran authority knows better, 

 perhaps, than anyone else. 



My special thanks are due to Dr. Harold C. Bryant, of Berkeley, who because of his 

 more extended acquaintance with them has prepared several of the articles upon the 

 geese, and to Mr. Griffing Bancroft, of San Diego, who has kindly supplied the account 

 of the Xantus Murrelet. 



To my wife, Frances, I owe an unpayable debt of gratitude for unsparing devotion 

 through the years to the task of manuscript preparation and revision, and, latterly. 



ix 



