62 



THE CONDOR 



Vol. IX 



body are not wanted, and are charged $25 per 

 year." (Signed) W. L. Pinney, Fish and Game 

 Commissioner of Arizona Territory. 



We don't propose to make these editorial 

 columns a table of contents of the issue, as is 

 often the custom of magazines. Yet we cannot 

 help calling particular attention to the last 

 pelican photo with Finley's article, page 41 of 

 this number. Aren't the purely artistic merits 

 of this picture to say the least exceptional? 



Mr. and Mrs Frank vStephens and Mr. Joseph 

 Dixon are leaving the first of April for a season's 

 collecting in southeastern Alaska. Their work 

 is in the niterests of a private party, and will 

 pertain mostly to mammals. Yet birds will not 

 lae altogether neglected. 



An effort was recently made in Oregon by 

 the fruit growers in the southern part of the 

 State to amend the Model Bird Law to such an 

 extent that the legislation for song birds was 

 practically annulled. They introduced a bill 

 in the House to the effect that farmers, gar- 

 deners and orchardists could shoot an)- bird 

 providing that it was considered detrimental to 

 crops. The bill passed the House and also the 

 Senate on Februarj' 21 by a narrow margin. 

 But thru the Oregon Audubon Society, such a 

 sentiment was raised in favor of the birds that 

 Governor Chamberlain vetoed the bill on Feb- 

 ruary 25. 



The Portland, Oregon, Public Library has 

 been presented by Mrs. W. S. Ladd with an 

 original set of the four-volume elephant folio 

 edition of Audubon. It is thought this is now 

 the onlj' complete set on the Pacific Coast. 

 The set was purchased somewhere in the East 

 in 1S79 by Mr. William Ladd for $1800. Mr. 

 W. L. Finley has examined the work and finds 

 these volumes of the "Birds of America" to be- 

 long to the same edition as those in the Library 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, as described by Stone in 77?,? ^4uk for 

 July, 1906. 



Mr. C. B. Linton, of the Southern Division 

 has been visiting in turn this spring the various 

 islands along the southern California coast. He 

 reports man}' new records for San Clemente and 

 San Nicolas. 



We are informed that it is now the intention 

 of the California Academy of Sciences to locate 

 their new building, to cost about ^^250, 000, in 

 Golden Gate Park. This will be a vast im- 

 provement over their former location in the dark 

 and grim}' business section of ,San Francisco. 



Mr. Bradford Torrey of Boston is again 

 spending the spring in southern California 

 watching ouzel*, solitaires and condors thru his 

 i2-power Busch binocular. 



The Cooper Club, both Divisions, has voted 

 an increase in the subscription price of The 

 Condor. This was a warranted move for sev- 

 eral reasons. The dollar rate did not meet the 

 cost of publication. Even at the increased 



rate, $1.50 per year, ours is j-et the lowest 

 priced of ornithological magazines. We be- 

 lieve that our subscribers appreciate the value 

 received in Thk Condor, and will continue 

 their support, the result of which will be an 

 extension in its size and number of illustra- 

 tions. Whether or not our expectations are 

 well founded remains to be proven. It must 

 be remembered, however, that The Condor 

 receives considerable of its support from the 

 dues of the Cooper Club (which includes sub- 

 scription), and these remain unchanged. 



COMMUNICATIONS 



SLAUGHTER OK BLUE J.\YS 



Editor The Condor: 



A double-column display header in a Sacra- 

 mento paper lately published announced, 

 "Killing of Jays, the Destroyers of Quail 

 Nests." This charge conjoined with the de- 

 tailed reading matter, which was written with 

 an intensity which curdled one's blood, 

 foretold that "there will be an awful slaughter 

 of blue jays during the early spring months.'' 

 Subjoined was a subscription list wherein was 

 donated various sums from ^1.50 to |;io, con- 

 cluding with a ver}' noble determination on the 

 part of the individual who distinguished him- 

 self last year by killing the greatest number of 

 jays "to strain every muscle and exercise ever}' 

 effort to uphold his reputation and win first 

 prize this year." 



Mr. Editor, rightly or wrongly the reading of 

 this sent a creepy reflex thru my sympa- 

 thetic, and I wondered if this slaughter was 

 either intelligent or justifiable. 



I remember as a boy in my native land the 

 bad name the common magpie [Pica caudata) 

 had as a destroyer of chickens, and a robber of 

 ne'-ts. Indeed I even recollect seeing "sucked 

 eggs," but never did I know of a pre-arranged 

 slaughter, and yet the farmers of that region 

 were careful of their own interests. But to re- 

 turn to the "Jays", I wrote up to the district 

 where the campaign was being organized. I re- 

 ceived some information which convinced me 

 that in some cases at least, the execution was 

 wrought by want of thought as well as want of 

 heart. One of the subscribers honestly admits 

 that "he had never given the matter of blue 

 jays any personal attention, but was guided 

 solely by the report of others." The heavy 

 donation was from a dealer in sporting goods — 

 a sportsman, and of course a close observer of 

 nature! A third gentleman, who has the local 

 reputation of being the best authority on birds 

 said ''that the jay is no good, he destroys eggs 

 all the time," and that he "had actually seen a 

 jay robbing a dove's nest, and flying away with 

 the egg in his beak." The sportsman with the 

 ambition for perennial premiership "is a 

 farmer, an old gentleman" who had one thou- 

 sand scalps to his credit for last season. One 

 could, Mr. Editor, be a Christian and yet wish 

 that the right hand of the "old gentleman" 

 might at least soon lose its cunning, and not 



