Andrew Jackson Grayson, who came to San Francisco just before the Gold Rush, was inspired to paint by James John Audubon's Birds of America. He vowed to extend Audubon's visual record west, to include the Pacific Slope of California and Mexico. Bequeathed to the University of California in 1879 by Grayson's widow, his paintings became an important holding in The Bancroft Library, but remained largely unknown to the public. Lois Chambers Stone of Berkeley spent several years researching the biography of Grayson that accompanies the portfolio. The publication of this long-overlooked masterwork has now assured Grayson of a significant place in the history of American ornithology.

As a result of the Arion edition, an exhibition of Grayson's original watercolors and related material, including the book and portfolio, was mounted in 1987 at the Oakland Museum and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D. C.

"One hundred and seventeen years after the death of Andrew Jackson Grayson, his monumental work, Birds of the Pacific Slope, has been published and his place as a major pioneer ornithologist in western North America is assured. In reproducing Grayson’s watercolors, The Arion Press has done an outstanding job, technically and artistically. The book accompanying the portfolio of plates is also lavishly published. This work presents the sum of Grayson’s work and our knowledge of the man himself, in a form that will probably never be equalled. Lois Stone and The Arion Press are to be congratulated for producing a beautiful work of artistic, historical, and scientific value."
    – Robert W. Storer, The Condor 1987, Vol. 89, pp. 944-945, The Cooper Ornithological Society.