American ornithologist who advanced the study and classification of North American birds.

An army physician (1864–81), Coues served also as a naturalist for the U.S. Northern Boundary Commission (1873–76) and for the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (1876–80). During that time he published his most valuable studies. His monumental Key to North American Birds (1872) was the first work of its kind to present a taxonomic classification of birds according to an artificial key. Other important works by Coues include A Check List of North American Birds (1873), Field Ornithology (1874), and two monographs: one on birds of the northwestern United States and one on birds of the Colorado River valley.