88 
BULLETIN OF THE NVTTALL 
ON SEVENTY-FIVE DOUBTFUL WEST-COAST BIRDS. 
BY J. G. COOPER, M. D. 
In Ornithological works written previous to I860 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- 
doubtedly 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 XII, 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 
