4 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVIII 
Most of the men who laid the foundations of western ornithology were 
Philadelphians, but they did not all come from the Quaker City, and it seems 
only fair to stretch my theme sufficiently to include these latter, as well as 
some mention of other sources through which a knowledge of Pacific Coast 
birds was obtained in the years before the great transcontinental expeditions. 
Prior to 1800 but little was known of the bird life of the west coast. Early 
voyagers touched at several points, but as a rule had no interest in wild life 
except as it afforded them food or profit. Captain Cook on one of his famous 
voyages touched, among other places, at Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, and 
Prince William Sound, now in the territory of Alaska, in April and May, 1778; 
and Sir Joseph Banks who accompanied him obtained the first specimens of 
west coast birds of which we have record. 
At the former locality Cook mentions among the dried skins and frag- 
ments of birds brought them by the natives ‘ ‘ a small species of hawk ; a heron ; 
and the alcyon or large-crested American king-fisher”. “There are also,” he 
writes, “some, which, I believe, are not mentioned, or at least vary, very con- 
siderably, from the accounts given of them by any writers who have treated 
professedly on this part of natural history. The first tw r o of these are species 
of woodpeckers. One less than a thrush, of a black colour above, with some 
white spots on the wings, a crimson head, neck and breast, and a yellowish 
olive-coloured belly ; from which last circumstance it might perhaps not im- 
properly be called the yellow-bellied woodpecker. The other is a larger, and 
much more elegant bird, of a dusky brown colour, on the upper part, richly 
waved with black, except about the head; the belly of a reddish cast, with 
round black spots ; a black spot on the breast ; and the under-side of the wings 
and tail of a plain scarlet colour, though blackish above ; with a crimson streak 
running from the angle of the mouth, a little down the neck on each side.*” 
These are easily identified as the Red-breasted Sapsucker and the Red-shafted 
Flicker, while a small bird of the finch kind is obviously a Junco. Cook also 
mentions Hummingbirds, which he regards as migrants from farther south 
since they saw none at first, but later the “natives brought them to the ships 
in great numbers”. These were the Rufous Hummer. 
At Prince William’s Sound were seen the White-headed Eagle, the Alcyon 
or great Kingfisher, the Hummingbird, and a small land bird evidently the 
Golden-crowned Sparrow. Steller’s Jay was also obtained at Nootka Sound, 
a bird which had been previously observed by this explorer at the same place. 
A number of these species were described by Latham and Pennant and in due 
course named by Gmelin. 
In 1786 a party of French explorers under Comte de La Perouse touched 
at San Francisco and Monterey and obtained two birds which were figured 
under the names “Perdrix de la Californie” and “Promerops de la Californie 
Septentrionale ” — respectively the California Quail and the California Thrash- 
er. It was this early discovery that led Gambel when he found and described 
the Thrasher some sixty years later to bestow upon it the name redivivus : 
resurrected. 
A British expedition commanded by Capt. Vancouver visited the same 
ports in November, 1792, and Archibald Menzies, the botanist, procured speci- 
mens of the California Vulture and the Quail which were duly described, fig- 
ured and named by Shaw in 1798. 
* A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc., Dublin, 1784, vol. 2, pp. 296-297. 
