Birds of California: an introduction to more than three hundred common birds of the state and adjacent islands

Fair+ copy. First edition. Leather softcover significantly rubbed, worn, and chipping (particularly at the spine.) Starting at inner hinges. Some foxing, but interior pages overall clean. Pencil notes and previous owner's blind stamp on front end pages.

Irene Grosvenor Wheelock (1867-1927) considers the biology, range, and status of birds throughout California, based upon her own observations in the field. Color frontispiece, ten full-page plates, and seventy-eight drawings in black-and-white by Bruce Horsfall.

From Frank Chapman's review in Bird-Lore:

This book is a noteworthy contribution to the literature of ornithological biography. The author states that field notes begun in 1894 form the basis of the following pages and give a list of twenty localities from the Colorado River and San Diego to Mt Shasta from the Farallones to Tahoe at which she has pursued her studies of birds chiefly during the nesting season ... Mrs. Wheelock's evidently wide experience commands for her observations the respectful consideration of those who have not been privileged to have her time and opportunities for field work. Her biographies abound with interesting and novel descriptions of the habits of birds ... The book should prove a potent incentive to California field workers and assuredly no one who proposes to study the habits of birds in the West can afford to be without it.