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 aleyon 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 two 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 cii?cumstance 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 east, 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 H?mmingbirds, 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 Aleyon 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 P?rouse 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. Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc., Dublin, 1784, vol. 2, pp. 296-297.
