70 



THE OSPREY. 



Galitornia Dei)ariment. 



COOPER ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



The Southern Division met at the home of Jos. 

 Grinnell, in Pasadena, Cal., November 27. Nom- 

 inations for officers of the Division for 1898 resulted 

 as follows; A. I. McCormick, for President; F. S. 

 Daggett, for Vice President , Howard Robertson and 

 Joseph Grinnell for Secretary, and Horace A. Gay- 

 lord, for Treasurer The election will take place at 

 the December meeting, which will be held at the 

 residence of F. S. Daggett, Pasadena, and a commit 

 tee consisting of Messrs. Grinnell, Daggett and Owen 

 was appointed to complete arrangements for the meet 

 in^;. Several papers from the Northern Division 

 were read. 



.\ special meeting of the Northern Division was 

 held at Alameda, December 4, at the home of H. R. 

 Taylor, with good attendance. Wm. L. Finley, of 

 Oregon, was present as a visitor. Bids for printing 

 the new constitution and by-laws of the Club were 

 considered and the contract awarded to Messrs. Gay- 

 lord Brothers. Two hundred and fifty copies will 

 be printed A 15 cent assessment was levied on mem- 

 bers of the Northern Division to defray its pro rata 

 of the expense of printing. The November Southern 

 Division report was read. R. C. McGregor, Secre- 

 tary of the State List Committee, made a report of 

 the county lists received to date by the Committee. 

 H. R. Taylor read a letter received from RoUo H. 

 Beck who is at present engaged with a scientific ex- 

 pedition in the Galapagos Archipelago. Henry B. 

 Kaeding recorded the taking of a specimen of the 

 Yellow Rail ( Por-.diia no-.u-hoiuurnsis ) in Alameda 

 County recently. 



The State List Committee urges that the County 

 Committees who have not yet reported do so as soon 

 as possible, in order to facilitate the work of pre- 

 paring the list. Messrs. Emerson, Cohen and Bar- 

 low were appointed to make arrangements for the 

 Annual Meeting to be held in San Jose, January 8. — 

 Pkblication Committee. 



CALIFORNIA NOTES. 



EDITED BY DON.ALD A. COHEN, ALAMEDA, CAL 



l-)ird life in the vicinity of Alameda, for the past 

 few months has not been up to the average, for sorne 

 unaccountable cause. Some winter residents have 

 not been noticed and the usually common resident.s 

 are scarce or almost lacking. The foregoing is the 

 result of the editor's obser\ations and refers only to 

 migratory species. 



In the compilation of the State List of Birds it 

 appears that Alameda County will head all other 

 counties represented by a C-ommittee of the Cooper 

 Ornithological Club, in furnishing the largest list. 

 The records and observations of Messrs. W. O. Em- 

 erson and Walter E. Bryant, extending for a period 

 of many \ ears will materially strengthen the list. 



The first county in the state to place Robins on 

 the protected list was Santa Clara County, a large 

 orchard district. It would have been good, hard 

 wisdom if Meadovvlarks were also afforded the same 

 protection as they are residents while the Robin is 

 purely migratory, and as an insect destroyer are 

 probably of greater service than the Robins 



Mr. Wm. L. Finley, President of the Northwestern 

 Ornithologists' Association, was present as a visitor 

 at the Cooper Club's December meeting. 



Mr. C. F. Stone, of Branchport, N. Y., recently 

 wrote us of a curious and interesting experience he 

 had with a Tree Sparrow one night recently The 

 bird was evidently attracted to the window pane b) 

 the light in the room. Mr. Stone " went outside and 

 caught him. Then I got a skin of Tree Sparrow 

 from my collection and held it up between my fingers 

 and the bird soon lit beside his skinned relative for 

 a minute or so. When I put the skin in a drawer 

 with other kinds of skins it was wonderful to see the 

 Tree Sparrow alight upon the drawer and nestle down 

 beside the skin of his own kind. He flew about the 

 room, alighting upon my head and knees several 

 times. He went to the drawer of skins several times 

 and pecked at the skin of the Tree Sparrow, uttering 

 a peculiar squeak as he did so." 



A resident of Contra Costa County relates the oc- 

 currence of six albino California Partridges among a 

 flock living near Mt. Diablo for several years, and 

 that some juvenile hunters shot several of the albinos 

 one day. 



Recent Literature. 



'I' lid (.nilliiMieoits Ciaiiir Birds of Nortli Aiiwrica . 

 Including the Partridges, Grouse, Ptarmigan and 

 Wild Turkeys ; with accounts of their distribution, 

 habits, nesting, etc., and full descriptions of the plu- 

 mage of both adult and young, together with their 

 popular and scientific names By Daniel Giraud 

 Elliot, F. R. S. E., etc. With 24 plates. New York; 

 Francis P. Harper, 1897. 



Those who are so fortunate as to own Mr. Elliot's 

 'Shore Birds' will rejoice in the appearance of his 

 companion volume on the gallinaceous game birds, 

 and those who buy this book on Mr. Elliot's reputation 

 as a naturalist and writer will not be disappointed. 

 The main body of the work is a formal, systematic 

 treatise on our Partridges or Ouail. Grouse, Ptarmi- 

 gan, and Turkevs, -in each case a popular biography 

 followed by sufficient technical descriptions. Forty- 

 six of the nearly fift\' species and sub-species figure 

 in as many full page plates b)- Mr. Edwin Sheppard, 

 which are accurate representations in that artist's 

 unique style. Attached to the back cover of the 

 book is an ingeniously contrived color chart, which, 

 though inexpensive, answers its purpose wonderfully 

 well. We trust Mr. Elliot will not refrain from 

 completing a series on the birds that most interest 

 the sportsman, by giving us a volume on the water- 

 fowl. The third volume would doubtless not only 

 be a satisfaction to the possessors of the other two, 

 but would be the means of enhancing the sale of its 

 predecessors ; in vears to come the three would be a 

 classical library on the game birds for the sportsman 

 and naturalist. — W. A. J. 



Song B/r</s and Water Foivl. By H. E. Parkhurst. 

 Illustrated by Louis A(;assiz Fuertes. New York ; 

 Charles Scribner's Son's, 1897. 



We have read Mr Parkhurst's 'Birds' Calendar, 

 so we pick up this volume with anticipations of rare 

 pleasure in its perusal — and our expectations are fully 

 realized. The two works of Mr. I'arkhurst's belong 

 to the class of literature that has come from the pens 

 of John Burroughs and Bradford Torrey, and they 

 bear the distinct originality of Mr. Parkhurst. Some 

 of the 18 full-page plates by Mr. Fuertes which adorn 

 the pages are even better than his previous work, and 

 prove that he is hard at work and not resting on the 

 oars of his past achievements. Truly, the book is a 

 good combination of bird literature and art. — W. A. J. 



