An Annotated Bibliography of Oregon Bird Literature Published Before 1935

George Jobanek's exhaustive, richly annotated bibliography fills an important gap in Oregon bird literature and offers a valuable new resource for professional and informed amateur ornithologists, wildlife managers, biologists, ecologists, and anyone with a serious interest in the natural history of the Pacific Northwest.

In compiling this unique book, George Jobanek carefully researched early ornithological, scientific, and natural history publications, from American Field to Zoe, for records of Oregon birds. Most of these early articles are today relatively rare; many were overlooked or ignored by previous bibliographers. In his annotations for each of the nearly two thousand entries, Jobanek conveys the salient points of each article and reveals its usefulness for contemporary readers. Direct quotations from the references allow for a glimpse of an earlier, golden age in ornithology.

References are organized by author and cross-indexed by species (e.g., 86 entries for Sage Grouse), county (e.g., 220 entries for Klamath County), and key word (e.g., "behavior," "conservation," "distribution," "introduction," "migration," "nesting," "taxonomy"). A gazetteer identifies localities mentioned in the annotations.

The origin of this bibliography lies with another bibliography, with J. Michael Scott, Thomas W. Haislip, Jr., and Margaret Thompson's list of Oregon references for the years 1935-1970 (Northwest Science 46:122-139, 1972). I found their cross-indexed species list so useful, and so easy to use, that I naively decided that the same should be done for references published before 1925, listed in Ira Gabrielson and Stanley Jewett's Birds of Oregon (1940, Oregon State College, Corvallis). At the time this seemed like a simple matter, and undeterred by the large number of references or the rarity of many of them, I earnestly began. It was not long before I realized that although Scott, Haislip and Thompson had asserted that Gabrielson and Jewett had adequately covered the references before 1935, there were problems with the list in Birds of Oregon--I found articles not included there and others that, although listed, were not at all about birds in Oregon or Oregon observations. I began to realize the difficulty of my task. I resolved that only be diligently and systematically reading the early ornithological journals might I accomplish my goal. The present list, after many years, is the result.

My criteria for inclusion in this bibliography are rather strict, forged from my early plodding through Gabrielson and Jewett's bibliography. I included only references that specifically mention Oregon or unambiguous Oregon locations. I do not include here, therefore, references that merely identify occurrence as "on the Pacific Coast," "in the Western states," "north to the Columbia River," and so forth. The kind or quality of references I include is very broad and is essentially the same allowed by Gabrielson and Jewett. In many instances this means listing trivial or secondary references, but I believe it is better to include the seemingly unimportant than to accidentally omit the useful. Witmer Stone said in his review of the second installment of Joseph Grinnell's bibliography of California ornithology that a bibliography, if worth doing, is worth doing well, for any error in a bibliography, like one in a dictionary, is likely to be copied over and over again, by those who have not the opportunity or inclination for personal verification." This is also true for omissions, and I therefore have been reluctant to exclude items lest they be lost to researchers. However, I have not included here newspaper articles, nor game law announcements and legislation. I have not made a concerted search for pertinent juvenile literature.

I have carefully searched the following journals for records of Oregon birds:
 

My original intent was simply to cross-index the early references with a species list, after Scott, Haislip, and Thompson, and as Mark Egger had done for the years 1971-1977 (Oregon Field Ornithologists Special Publication no. 1, 1980). Only after working for a considerable time did I decide to annotate the entries. A cross-indexed list would be useful, but many references, by their rarity, are inaccessible to most readers. By briefly describing each item, I might reveal the references' usefulness, or pertinence, or interest; they might no longer be so remote.

My labors on the annotations have been Sisyphean. I have written many of them several times, going from the briefest mention of content to the present fuller, more informative and usable form. I have strived for consistency in form and have sought to convey in a concise manner the salient points of each article. However, I have summarized only the Oregon material of each. Each annotation is, of course, my personal interpretation and assessment of an article's content and meaning, and readers should be cautious in using my summaries in lieu of reading references for themselves. I have tried to be even-handed and nonjudgmental in the annotations but, although I have not gone as far as Joseph Grinnell in calling items "vapid and valueless," in several instances my personal opinion of an item's worth or credibility will be clear.

I frequently quote from the references in my annotations. Descriptions of abundance and range are usually best given in the authors' own words; such often ambiguous terms do not lend themselves well to rephrasing. But more importantly, these references constitute a literature, in some sense a lost literature, and I view my task partly as rescuing a body of work long forgotten or ignored. Not all of what I quote is good writing, but it is all earnest and honest writing, and it mattered to the authors. I have tried to give them their say; felicitous phrases and descriptions deserve new attention. In many cases, references I include have been neglected for a century, overlooked by Gabrielson and Jewett and hidden in no longer read minor journals. It takes but a little dusting to restore the luster of their contents.

I have tried to follow a standard formula for each entry. Authors are listed by last and first names and middle initial when I have all that information. Coauthors are listed separately under their name, with a reference to the annotated entry. In any instances I have inferred authorship, particularly where short items appeared in editorial columns. In these cases, I enclose the author's name in brackets. I have not used brackets where articles have been signed by initials and the identity of the author is clear. In cases where reference is untitled, I have created a title and enclose it in brackets. Dates are inclusive. Locations are listed in alphabetical order of counties.

I list species within each annotation in phylogenetic order after the AOU check-list, 6th edition, 1983. I use the scientific names used by the author, but identify current scientific names, and use or identify current English names. I am regrettably not a taxonomist, nor am I especially literate with the taxonomic literature, so knowledgeable readers will surely find errors; I just hope my sources, constantly at hand, have minimized these mistakes. I caution readers that nomenclature has changed markedly in the over 100 years covered by this bibliography. A good acquaintance with the species names used in Birds of Oregon will be helpful in discovering the early Oregon bird literature on your own. Other useful aids are Richard C. Banks, Obsolete English names of North American birds and their modern equivalents, Fish and Wildlife Service Resource Publication no 174, 1988; and Appendix III. Translation of outdated common bird names to current common names, in Range D. Bayer, 1884-1923 Oregon coast bird notes in Biological Survey files, Studies in Oregon Ornithology no. 1, 1986.

The numbers following species names in the cross-indexed species list are bibliographic entry numbers. Species in brackets are those for which I found reference but which are not recognized on the official Oregon bird list. In almost all cases, such records are dubious legitimacy; see G.A. Jobanek, 1994, Dubious records in the early Oregon bird literature, Oregon Birds 10:3-23. The county index gives numbers of bibliographic entries pertaining to the 36 Oregon counties. References that are not specific to county are not recorded on this list. For the key-word index, I have assigned to each entry a word or words that reflect, in my judgment, the primary topic or theme of the Oregon material of the reference. They are not a guide to the content of the entire article, which in many cases is quite different. These key words are behavior, conservation, count, distribution, economics, food, introduction, migration, nesting, ornithologists paleontology, plumage, population, review, sport, taxonomy, and techniques. The year of population index lists the entries by publication date from 1827 through 1934. I also include a list of references in Gabrielson and Jewett's Birds of Oregon bibliography which I find do not belong in a bibliography of Oregon bird literature.

A gazetteer identifies localities mentioned in the annotations. I compiled this from Lewis A. McArthur, 1992, Oregon Geographic Names, sixth edition, Portland; DeLorme Mapping's Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer, 1991, Freeport, Maine; and William G. Loy, 1976, Atlas of Oregon, Eugene. For historic or obscure localities not in these sources I used the United States Geological Survey's compilation of names appearing on Oregon topographic maps, 1993, Reston VA. In addition, a map shows locations frequently mentioned in this bibliography.

Several sources have been useful to me. For learning of small, often obscure natural history periodicals, I have used Margaret H. Underwood, 1954 Bibliography of North American minor natural history serials in the University of Michigan Libraries, Ann Arbor. The nomenclature is that of the AOU check-list, 6th edition, 1983, and its supplements. For determining synonyms, I have used the 4th edition, 1931; the 5th edition, 1957; and the 6th edition, 1983, of the AOU check-list. Joseph Grinell and Alden H. Miller, 1944, The distribution of the birds of California, Pacific Coast Avifauna 27:1-608, has been particularly useful in this regard, as have been the several volumes of Robert Ridgway's Birds of North and Middle America. I have also used M. Ralph Browning, 1979. Type specimens of birds collected in Oregon, Northwest Science 53:132-140. For the identification of localities I have relied on McArthur's Oregon Geographic Names, and less often, Loy's Atlas of Oregon.

Several people have helped with his project. I am indebted to the staffs of the University of Oregon and Oregon State University libraries, and regret that I cannot acknowledge them all by name. Three people in particular who have helped me considerably are Joanne Halgren of the University of Oregon's Knight Library interlibrary loan service, and Isabel Sterling and Bradley Wycoff of the University of Oregon's Science Library. Range Bayer, Alan Contreras, my wife, Margaret Hadaway, and my children, Jessica and Andy Jobanek, have offered encouragement and support. Alan Contreras, Charles Henny, and David B, Marshall, and Roxanne Nelson and Jo Alexander of Oregon State University Press have helped shepherd the project from manuscript to published book. Janet Hinshaw, of the Wilson Ornithological Society's Josselyn Van Tyne Memorial Library, was unstinting in fielding my requests for materials and delivering those to me promptly and courteously. I appreciate Dr. William Loy's help in preparing the map on page vi. I owe perhaps my greatest debt of gratitude, however, to Herb Wisner of Eugene, Oregon, who opened his extensive library to me and patiently listened to my excited reports of my discoveries.

For historians of another era, Oscar Handlin observed, "the proof of worth was usefulness." But usefulness long ago ceased to be my primary motivation for spending the hours, days, months, and years that I have on this project. I hope sincerely that this bibliography is useful but what has kept me in the library is that it has been fun. This bibliography has allowed me to view another era of ornithology and has introduced me to some remarkable characters. I find myself nostalgic for a time gone long before I was born, and caring for the lives of persons whose welfare is long past mortal concern. It has been a wonderful hobby and I must admit to a feeling of disappointment when I realized I was finished. Perhaps this is a feeling common to any who work on a bibliography, as the epigraph by Elliott Coues suggests.

Joseph Grinnell called his bibliographic labors his "knitting." I am not the craftsman or artisan Grinnell was, and prefer another metaphor. What I have done is clean a messy attic. I have sorted through and dusted off a lot of things, some merely household items that accumulate over a lifetime, some sterling treasures that gleam with a little polish. All of these things I have brought downstairs to share. perhaps in this collection you will find something interesting; I hope the search, at least, is enjoyable. But the fun for me has been opening the boxes and seeing what was inside. The attic's clean, but oh, the memories that remain!