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_‘ --_ - -_-. -. ._ I- _- ___--_~ ~__I------.___ - _ y_Y_ ~.~I.----- - -a~. COOPER ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA NUMBER 18 DIRECTORY TO THE BIRD-LIFE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY REGION BY JOSEPH GRINNELL AND MARGARET W. WYTHF CONIRIRUTION’ NO. 4Y3 FROM THE MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA Published by the Club March 29, 1927 Edited by JOSEPH GRINNELL and HARRY S. SWARTH at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology University of Colifmnia NOTE PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 18 is the eighteenth in a series of publications issued by the Cooper Ornithological Club for the accommodation of papers whose length prohibits their appearance in THE CONDOR. For information regarding either series of Cooper Club publications address W. Lee Chambers, Business Manager, Drawer 123, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles County, California. CONTENTS PAGE Frontispiece: Commuter’s View of Common Gulls of San Francisco Bay . ..... .... .................................................................... facing title, 1 Preface ... ... .. ........................................................................................................ 5 Introduction . .. ........................................................................................................ 7 Map of the “San Francisco Bay Region”. ............................................................. 7 Books Recommended . ... ........................................................................................ 8 Bibliography of Published Local Lists.. ............... ................................................ 9 Libraries of Ornithology. ... .. ........................................................................... 17 Public Museums . ........ ... .................................................................................... 19 Acknowledgments . .......... ................................................................................... 19 Systematic List of the Species and Subspecies............ ............................................... 21 The General Directory . ........... ..... _..... .. .. ..... ...................................................... 35 Scope ........... ............................................................................................................ 35 Summary ....... ..... ... ......................... _.. .. .. .................................................. 149 Index ........ ...................................................................................... _......... .................... 151 PREFACE The purpose of the present contribution is to provide help and incentive toward an increased knowledge of the bird-life of the San Francisco Bay region. While something may be said for the plan adopted by some students of bird-life, to prosecute their inquiries independently of anyone else, it is the conviction of the present writers that the best procedure on the part of the average student is to acquaint himself as fast and as thoroughly as he can with the findings of other students, those that have preceded him. A main aim in the present paper, therefore, is to give clues as to the literature already available in regard to each kind of bird in the limited territory covered. This is not, therefore, simply a list of birds that have been found to occur in the region, more or less annotated from the standpoint of the museum collector, but it is primarily an accumulation of facts and citations of a sort thought likely to prove useful to the student of the living bird. This is meant as no disparagement of the worthiness of the efforts of the collector and systematist ; for their work is essential, especially in the initial stages in the development of the general field of ornithology. If, as is the authors’ earnest wish, future students of the bird-life in the Bay region make full use of the index feature of the present paper, they will quickly be led to the same conclusion that has forced itself upon us, namely, that knowledge of the life histories of even our commonest birds is as yet deplorably meager. There is greatly needed a concentration of attention, on the part of those with the time and talent to study wild birds out-of-doors, upon this phase of ornithology. Beside the facts and interpretations comprised in the natural history of individual species, there are the more general problems concerned with the inter-relations between different species and with the changes in relative numbers under the altering of conditions which accompany the close settlement of the country by the white man. Field observations, accurately made, carefully recorded, and finally published in concise form constitute at this time an exceedingly desirable kind of contribution to the science of ornithology. If the present contribution will prove to have aided accom- plishment in this direction, its purpose will be realized. JOSEPH GRINNELL. MARGARET W. WYTHE. November 20, 1926. INTRODUCTION A first thing naturally necessary in an undertaking of the present sort is to fix arbitrarily the limits of the region dealt with. The “San Francisco Bay region” has been determined upon by us as including the nine counties which border in any measure upon San Francisco Bay, namely, the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, and Marin; also the nearby Farallon Islands. The entire area of each of the counties named is taken into account. COUNTIES A Alameda CC Contra Costa fFg%?g M Marin Mo Monterey SJ San Joaquin ti Merced- SI Soleno N Nape SM San Mete0 P Placer Sn Sonoma S San Francisco St Stanislaus Sa Sacramento Y YOIO MAP OF “SAN FRANCISCO BAY REGION”: THE NINE INCLUDED COUNTIESOUTLINED BOLDLY. lb 4a 4b 5 6 8a 86 Parifir Coa-I 4vifauna So. 18 COMMUTERS’ VIEW OF COMMON GULLS OF SAN FRAKCISCO B.41 la, lb, Heermann Gull; 2, Short-billed Mew Gull; 3, Ring-billed Gull; 4a, 4b, American Herring Gull; 5, California Gull; 6, Glaucous-winged Gull; 7, Northern Western Gull; 8a, 8b, Bonaparte Gull. 8 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 18 no matter how far from the Bay proper its limits may extend. However, as it turns out (see accompanying map) the area thus delimited is not so irregular as might have been expected; indeed, it proves to have a fair degree of avifaunal individuality, when comparison is made with other sections of California. In the General Directory, which forms the main part of our contribution, we have aimed to include all the species and subspecies authentically known to have occurred anywhere within the area outlined. We consider authenticity established when based upon a record in the literature, or a specific observation, made by an ornithologist of known experience, or upon one or more specimens of the species, with satisfactory data attached, preserved in a public or private museum. For reasons that it is unnecessary here to go into, the statements of sportsmen or of writers of so-called popular natural history have not, as a rule, been considered as providing satisfactory evidence of the occurrence of rare or unusual birds within our limits. This may account for certain omissions that the critical student may discover. At the same time, it is always possible that we have overlooked some really authentic “record” that should have been included. No doubt we have; and for such lapses we have no apology to offer save that, by reason of the great volume of both published and unpub- lished sources that have had to be gone over, escape of a certain, though let us hope small, percentage of important facts seems inevitable. BOOKS RECOMMENDED As a matter of personal history with many advanced bird students of the present day, the one book that has proved of outstanding worth in furnishing a foundation of ornithological knowledge has been Elliott Coues’ classic “Key to North American Birds” (many editions, from 1872 down to the last, 1903, Dana Estes, Boston). Be- cause of the critical scholarship that characterized its authorship, and because of the wide range of subjects covered, descriptive, systematic, morphologic, biographical, and as pertaining to the technique of field collecting, Coues’ Key may still, we think, be recommended as the bird book to possess, if no other volume were ever to be owned. In the purely systematic field, the one inclusive work is Robert Ridgway’s “Birds of North and Middle America”, 8 vo 1umes to date (Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1901-1919). Since for most people this work will probably prove unnecessarily technical, we would recommend that such persons use, at least at the outset, for the identification of species, Florence Merriam Bailey’s “Handbook of Birds of the Western United States” (Houghton Mifflin, 1902, and many subsequent editions). Also, there are many popular guides, of more or less merit, which we are assured have been varyingly helpful to beginning students in bringing acquaintance with our species by name. Of help f rom the general geographical standpoint is the official American Ornithologists’ Union “Check-list of North American Birds” (last edition, New York, 1910; a new edition shortly to appear). Of more local bearing, and including a discussion of the laws of distribution, is J. Grinnell’s “A Distribu- tional List of the Birds of California” (Pacific Coast Avifauna No. 11, 1915). When it comes to the natural history of our birds, the field of knowledge which deals with the bird in life (and this is, of course, the main one in ornithology), there is a very large number of books seemingly available.

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