Occasional Papers CALIFORNIA ii. SAN FRANCISCO, 1890. LAND BIRDS Pacific District BELDINQ SAN FRANCISCO: CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, September, 1890. ' Committee of Publication: H. W. HARKNESS, GEORGE HEWSTON. T. S. BRANDEGEE, «• H. BEHR. Editor: TOWNSHEND STITH BRANDEGEE. 652182 LAND BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. In the fall of 1883 the leading ornithologists of the United States and Canada met at New York and organ- ized the American Ornithologists' Union, appointed committees for the revision of the classification and no- menclature of North American birds, on their migration, avian anatomy, the elegibility of the European house sparrow in America, and on faunal areas. The United States and British North America were divided into thirteen districts, including the light-houses of the coasts as one, with a superintendent for each dis- trict. The Pacific District comprises California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada, in which I superintended the collection of data concerning migration and distribution of the birds for about two years, resigning early in 1886, as I thought we had already accomplished about all we were likely to in this line of inquiry, with the limited number of observers. The report from the District of British Columbia, Mr. John Fannin, Superintendent, was, at the suggestion of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chair- man of the Committee on Migration, and by the courtesy of Mr. Fannin, incorporated in our report. Mr. Fannin informed me that his list of British Columbia birds was made up partly from his own notes and partly from those published by John K. Lord, and says that having traveled the province pretty extensively, he has ascertained that Mr. Lord made some mistakes in limiting the range of some species, and in recording the habits of others, and that the observations concern- ing British Columbia must be taken as referring to the whole province, and not for any particular district, un- less otherwise stated. "British Columbia," he writes, "is a country of Z CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. migrants within itself, for while it is winter in one por- tion, the flowers of summer are blooming in another. It is also a country of great distances, and it is very won- derful what a change in our bird fauna may be seen in traveling a few miles. It is only nine miles from Bur- rard Inlet to New Westminister, and yet of our summer visitors, there are some four or five species which are abundant at the latter place that are entirely unknown at the former; and so it is all through the Province, although the difference may not be so marked." The notes of the light-house keepers on the coast of British Columbia and Washington were kindly forwarded by Dr. Merriam for the same purpose. In 1885 the Division of Economic Ornithology was established in connection with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, at Washington, with Dr. Merriam as or- nithologist and Dr. A. K. Fisher assistant ornithologist. The work on migration and distribution was continued here, and observations on the food habits of the birds were added; and still later, observations on the food of mammals became a part of the work. This report was mostly type-written by that department, proof read by Dr. Fisher, and the most of the data of 1886 and later was incorporated by him. To do this, he gave very valuable time and much intelligent labor without the hope of reward, although he was, during this time, superintendent of the extensive and important Atlantic District. Finally, we are placed under still greater ob- ligations to the Department of Agriculture by the return, at my request, of the type-written copy. This report aims, mainly, to show the arrivals and departures of migrating species, as well as to give a cat- alogue of all the species known to occur in the district. The data on the food of the birds has been mostly elim- inated from the report, being usually meagre and, BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. 6 therefore, unsatisfactory. It will, however, be preserved for future use. All persons are credited with the data which they contributed to the report, which has been simply a labor of love from beginning to end. In California the spring migrating land birds almost invariably come gradually and almost imperceptibly, probably many arriving in the night or early morning; and I have never seen, on the Pacific Coast, what might properly be termed a "bird wave," except upon one oc- casion, and that was in the spring of 1866, before I began to keep a record of bird movements. Mr. F. Stephens noticed a " bird wave " at Campo, San Diego County, the last of April, 1877 (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, July, 1883, p. 188). Except these, I know of no other occurrences of this kind on this Coast, of course ex- cluding the occasional movements of large bodies of geese and ducks. It is very difficult, therefore, to as- certain the lines of flight, but we may conclude that many summer residents of California and northward bear well to the east in seeking their winter quarters in the tropics, as at least a dozen species which breed in California have not been observed much south of San Diego at any time, among these being such conspicuous species as Bullock's oriole and the Arkansas flycatcher, which, in common with the other species, occur far south on the mainland in Mexico in winter. Then there are summer residents of Washington, British Columbia and Alaska which have never been collected in California, though they spend the winter in the tropics. The high Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges would seem to be an impassible barrier to the migrants, and they undoubtedly have great influence in determin- ing lines of flight — but not nearly as much as would naturally be supposed, as a number of species which winter in California migrate vertically and spend the summer on the east slope. 4 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. I have seen pelicans, geese, Lewis's woodpecker and others crossing between eight and nine thousand feet above sea level. Mountain quail cross on foot, some of them making a journey of sixty or eighty miles, no matter how deep the snow in spring, returning in fall, sometimes over a foot or two of snow on the divide, leaving their summer resorts where there is no snow, to reach their well known winter home. A great many of the summer visitants enter the San Joaquin Valley by the Tehachapi Pass, altitude 4,000 feet. Col. N. A. Goss, in the spring of 1884, noticed terns at Julian, San Diego County, altitude 4,500 feet, "crossing from the Gulf of California to the Pacific." Mr. Waiter J. Mor- gan saw an immense migration of sand-hill cranes and geese which lasted about two weeks, by day and night, from Ensenada, Lower California, to Port San Felipe, on the Gulf, in Oct. and Nov., 1884, much of the Penin- sula between these localities being no less than 4,000 feet above sea level. Probably a great many small birds take nearly the same course in fall, cross near the head of the Gulf and spend the winter in Mexico. Mr. F. Stephens, who has collected a long time in San Bernardino Valley, says the spring migrants enter that valley from the southeast and return in an opposite direction in fall. He thinks a great many cross the Gulf of California from Mexico. As the names of all correspondents are connected with the information they furnished, it is not necessary to name them elsewhere. The authorities quoted, sparingly in most instances, but in their own language, usually, or a part of it, are: Dr. J. S. Newberry. Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific Ocean. Vol. 6, part 4, number 2, War Department. BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. 5 S. F. Baird, John Cassin and Geo. N. Lawrence. Explorations and Surveys, etc. Vol. 9, War Dept. (often quoted as Vol. 9, Pacific R. R. Repts.). Dr. A. L. Heermann. Explorations, etc. Vol. 10, No. 2, War Dept, (Vol. 10, Pacific R. R. Reports.). Drs. G. Suckley and J. G. Cooper. Explorations, etc. Vol. 12, Book 2, part. 3, War Dept. (reissued as Natural History of Washington Territory), the extracts from their respective notes being prefaced in this report with Cooper, 1860; Suckley, 1860, this being the date of the publication of their work. Dr. J. G. Cooper. Geological Survey of California, J. D. Whitney, State Geologist. Vol. 1, Land Birds, edited by S. F. Baird from manuscript and notes of Dr. J. G. Cooper. Herein cited as Cooper, 1870. [Auk, vii, 214.— W. E. B.] H. W. Henshaw. Wheeler's Topographical Surveys, Appendix JJ., dated 1876, cited as Henshaw, 1876. (Observations at Santa Barbara, Fort Tejon, Mount Whitney, Walker's Basin and intervening country in 1875.) H. W. Henshaw. Wheeler's Surveys, 1879, Appen- dix 00., in this report quoted as Henshaw, 1879. (Mr. Henshaw's observations were on the east slope from Carson to the Columbia River, and included work in. the summers of 1877 and 1878.) 0. B. Johnson. Birds of Willamette Valley. Amer- ican Naturalist, 1880. Prof. Johnson also contributed his observations at Seattle in 1884. Capt. Charles E. Bendire, U. S. A. Notes on some of the birds found in southeastern Oregon, particularly in the vicinity of Camp Harney. Proc. Boston Society of Nat. Hist., 1877. (Observations from November, 1874, to January, 1877.) Robert Ridgway. United States Geological Survey \ 6 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. of the Fortieth Parallel. Part 3. Ornithology. Prof. Ridgway made observations at Sacramento from June 6th to July 4th, 1867, afterward crossing the Sierra to Truckee Valley, Pyramid Lake, Carson and other local- ities in western Nevada, where the remainder of 1867 was spent. Observations were continued in western Nevada until July, 1868. Afterward the route from Austin to Salt Lake was explored. Dr. W. J. Hoffman. Annotated List of the Birds of Ne- vada, Author's Edition, Vol. 6, U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey. Dr. Hoffman followed the 115th meridian from near northern Nevada, southward to about 37° latitude, thence westward to Owen's Valley, California, and from this point southeast to Fort Mojave, and thence up the Colorado River beyond Nevada. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, North American Birds. No doubt the most complete work on North American birds ever published in America. It has also a merit that is getting rarer of late, that of giving credit to whom credit is due. Bulletin of the Nuttall Club. A quarterly journal of ornithology. The first volume was issued in 1876. It afterward became the Auk. The Auk, the organ of the American Ornithologists' Union. In addition to the forenamed authorities, a few items have been culled from other publications. The Pro- ceedings of the Phila. Acad., containing Dr. GambePs papers, and the Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., containing some of Dr. Cooper's articles, came into my possession too late to benefit much by them. There being no correspondents in Nevada, I have drawn freely upon the valuable reports and papers of Messrs. Bendire, Henshaw, Ridgway and Hoffman. By Central California I refer to the part of the State BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. 7 between the northern parts of Stanislaus and Tuolumne counties and the northern part of Butte, southwestern Pluraas and Sierra counties. I have made observations at many localities in this part of the State, in the tule swamps, river bottoms, plains, foothills and coniferous forests of the Sierra Ne- vada Mountains at all altitudes, kept a record of the birds, but have not thought it necessary to burden my notes with a long list of localities. The summer resi- dents are the same in northern Tuolumne County as in northern Butte, though a few species become more nu- merous with increase of latitude, and there is a corre- sponding decrease in altitude of the breeding range of some of the mountain species. There is little difference in the resident species of the northern Sacramento Val- ley and the southern San Joaquin Valley, and I believe the avifauna of Central California nearly represents that of the State north of about the 35° of latitude, east of the coast mountains and west of the Great Basin, though a considerable portion of this tract has not been ornitho- logically explored, the Sierra from near Tehachapi to Alpine county having been quite neglected. I am quite confident that few, if any, species have es- caped my notice in Central California, except a few which probably visit the high Sierra Nevada in winter, from the north, when snow is so deep as to prevent ex- ploration. The Pacific District has an area, exclusive of British Columbia, of 434,000 square miles. California alone is more than twice as large as the six New England States, has a great diversity of surface and climate, and is as long as from Florida to Lake Erie — facts sufficient to prohibit positive opinions until after a more thorough exploration. The nomenclature is that at present sanctioned by the 8 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. American Ornithologists' Union, which has changed considerably since this paper was commenced. Mr. Walter E. Bryant is entitled to credit for making the necessary changes and otherwise preparing it for the printer. i. Colinus virginianus (Linn.) BOB-WHITE. Mr. Ramon E. Wilson, of the California Sportsman's Association kindly furnishes the following concerning introduced game birds; date, October 12, 1885: "Our efforts in that direction have resulted in failures, except as I will state. Mr. Estee, some years ago, placed two dozen bob-whites on his farm in Napa County. Every precaution was taken to protect them from hunters, and they were carefully looked after. They all soon disap- peared, the theory being that they were destroyed by vermin. I learn that last February some of the same kind of birds were placed on the farms of Mr. Miller, Mr. Samuel Rea and Mr. J. P. Sargent, along Carnedero Creek, near Gilroy. It is said they have bred the past season, and their numbers materially increased. The experiments, however, from the length of time can hardly be called u success. Some years ago some Arizona quail were put out near Folsom, but they all soon disappeared, and nothing has been heard of them since. Some bob-whites were placed on General Bidwell's place near Chico, but I un- derstand they have disappeared also. Bob- whites roost on the ground and are therefore unable to protect them- selves from the vermin which is so plentiful everywhere in California. Some years ago a flock of English pheasants was put out in the woods of Santa Cruz county, but nothing has been seen nor heard of them since. Colonel Raymond of San Mateo has a number of these birds, English and BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. 9 Japanese, but he has had no success in raising them; when let out they suddenly disappear and nothing is seen or heard of them. Mr. Howard, near by, has experimented with the same bird. A few weeks since he informed me that his foreman told him he had seen a flock of twenty-two birds. The birds mentioned are the only ones experimented with. Certainly thus far the experiments are not a success. In Oregon they have met with great success, with both quail and pheasants." Bendire (1877). This species may properly be in- cluded in the avi-fauna of southern Oregon. It was originally introduced at Boise City, Idaho, and now ex- tends to the Oregon side of Snake River, and is multiply- ing rapidly. Willamette Valley. 0. B. Johnson (1880).— Intro- duced and doing finely. 2. Oreortyx pictus (Dougl.) MOUNTAIN PARTRIDGE. Newberry. They extend from the Columbia almost uninterruptedly, but nowhere abundantly, through the Siskiyou, Calapooya and Trinity mountains to Cali- fornia. 0. B. Johnson. Very common throughout Western Oregon, breeding extensively. Cooper, 1860. Very rare in Washington Territory, a few small coveys only being found about Vancouver as I was informed by the officers of the garrison in 1853. 3. Oreortyx pictus plumiferus (Gould). PLUMED PAR- TRIDGE. San Diego County. F. E. Blaisdell. — Common in the higher mountains. Volcan Mountains. W. 0. Emerson. — Observed January 23, the day of my arrival, and only once after- ward; probably the snow drove them down the mountain. 10 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. V lU'iishaw, 1876. We found it in the mountains near Fort Tejon and in the Sierra in sufficient number of localities to justify the belief that its distribution in southern California is quite general. Agua Caliente, San Diego County. F. Stephens. — Resident; heard almost daily in the foothills. San Bernardino. F. Stephens. — Tolerably common in the mountains; breeds. Tehachapi. L. B. — Common resident. Paraiso Springs, Monterey County. W. E. Bryant. — April 1885. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway. An egg of this species taken by Dr. Canfield near Monterey. Central California. L. B. — Very common throughout the Sierra in summer and is increasing rather than otherwise. Probably a few nests are destroyed by sheep, and a few are deserted in consequence of sheep grazing about them, but this quail does not desert her nest for slight cause. Many cross from California to the east slope to breed, and, having done so, in September they begin to cross to the west slope where they winter at varying heights according to season. Between Summit and Donner Lake, as early as September 4, 1885, I met several flocks coming up from the lake on their way down the west slope. The most of the species had passed west of Summit before October 1, although I found a few as late as October 12, and a few winter on the east slope, as the settlers of Sierra Valley told me this was the case there, and Mr. Ridgway found a flock near Pyramid Lake, December 27, 1867. One of his speci- mens was taken at Carson City, March 10, 1868. They frequently take shelter in the snow sheds of the Central Pacific Railroad during early snow storms and sometimes journey westward within them. At such times they often appear stupid and appear to have lost the instinct of self- BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. 11 preservation but it may be that they become dazzled by the snow if not quite snow-blind. Their nests are usually in rock rose, also called " tar weed " (Chamcebatia, folio- Ion(i), or in " bear bush," " snow bush " (Ceanothus cordu- latus). One I saw was in a hollow stump, but, as usual, was on the ground and was probably made when the snow was several inches deep outside of the stump. The eggs appear to be in most cases from eleven to thirteen. The first broods are out from about June 20 to July 5, according as the season is early or late. Cisco. Dr. Cooper (in letter). Cisco, altitude 5,911 feet, April 28, on snow. Igo. E. L. Ballou. — Common resident. March 27, 1884, the species was mated here. June 1, sitting. Henshaw, 1879. It is only at rare intervals that it appears to cross the mountains and appear along the eastern slope. About Carson, at Eagle and Honey Lakes, California, and at the Dalles on the Columbia, their presence was detected and is to be accounted for through the natural dispersion of the species. At several localities near Camp Bidwell, Cal., the several covies are the descendants brought from the Pacific Slope and let loose to shift for themselves. They are nowhere in this region very numerous. Vancouver and adjacent islands. John Fannin — Introduced from California. [Perhaps those seen at the Dalles by Mr. Henshaw belonged under 0. pictus. Those I found in Butte Co., lat. 40° 10', altitude about 5,000 feet, were identical with those found farther south in the Sierra Nevada. I be- lieve San Pedro Mountain, Lower California, is the most southern known range of the genus Oreortyx. I am positive that it does not inhabit Lower California south of La Paz, and doubt if it ever did. San Pedro Mount- ain, as it is termed by the people of northern Lower 12 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. California, is about 125 English miles south of the boundary line, and on the charts of the U. S. Coast Survey bears the name of Santa Catalina Mountain, and also that of Calamajuet, which latter name I have sometimes applied to San Pedro.] 4. Callipepla californica (Shaw). CALIFORNIA PAR- TRIDGE. This, the typical form of the California quail or par- tridge, inhabits the coast of northwest California, Ore- gon and Washington. It is darker above than the interior and southern form of the " valley quail," as all of these birds are universally termed in California. Sportsmen know but two kinds of quails indigenous to this coast, namely valley quails and mountain quails, and these names are likely to be perpetuated. 5. Callipepla californica vallicola Ridgw. VALLEY PARTRIDGE. Abundant about San Diego, where, March 7, 1884, the breeding note of the male was first heard; March 27th scattering in pairs in canons. April 4, a pair exca- vating for a nest under a small cactus. May 13, Mr. W. J. Morgan saw a brood just hatched, the first of the season as far as known; spring wet and cool. Tia Juana Valley near San Diego, April 3, 1885, two broods of young about a week old. Season unusually early. Poway. F. C. Blaisdell. — An abundant resident; lir.-4 set of eggs taken April 27, 1884. Vulcan Mountains, altitude about 5,000 feet. W. 0. Emerson. — Large flocks all winter. Aqua Caliente, San Diego Co., Cal. F. Stephens. — March 18 to April 15, 1886. In small numbers in the outer edge of the desert along foothills. San Bernardino. F. Stephens. — An abundant resi- dent. Santa Catalina Island; probably introduced. BIRDS OK THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. 13 Tehachapi and vicinity. L. B. — Abundant resident; ('. <)