Note 32 — The Birds of Washington (continued 6)

Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River [etc.], by John K. Townsend (1839), p. 339. Townsend’s “Catalog of birds found in the territory of the Oregon,” which appeared in this work, pp. 331-336, enjoys the distinction of being the first faunal list of this northwestern region. It contains 208 titles but the naturalist included in it mention of many species encountered by him in his passage of the Rocky Mountains, and he does not, of course, distinguish between the regions lying north and south of the Columbia River. Of the total number recorded, therefore, Washington cannot possibly be entitled to above 168 species, and the list has little value in establishing the status of a bird as a resident of Washington.