112 



THE CONDOR 



Vol. IX 



THE CONDOR 



An Illustrated Magazine 

 of "Western OrnitKology 



Published Bi-Monthly by <he Cooper OrnHholo^i- 

 cal Club of CaliforniaL 



JOSEPH GRINNELL, Editor. - PaLSSidenaL 



H. T. CLIFTON, Business Maivager, Box 404, Pasadena 



'^"''''J'A'; .nilirn I Associ»..e Editors 

 JOSEPH MAILLIARD / 



Pasadena, California: Publislied June15, 1907i 



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EDiTORIAIvS 



In the vote to establish certain usages in our 

 magazine, twenty-three Cooper Club members 

 responded, with the following results: 



By a vote of i8 to 5 we are not to use the 

 metric system exclusively in The Condor. 

 We will use whichever system authors of 

 articles prefer. A wise suggestion is that in 

 technical accounts, the metric system be em- 

 ployed, but English equivalents given in paren- 

 thesis. No one would then be inconvenienced. 



By a vote of 16 to 7 we are to continue to use 

 the simplified spelling in its authoritatively 

 recommended moderation. 



By a vote of 12 to 11 we are hereafter to 

 begin with capitals all vernacular names of 

 birds in the body of sentences, as well as m 

 lists. This is the only change from our pre- 

 vious custom. Mr. Dawson's presentation of 

 this subject in our last issue, leaves us con- 

 vinced of the correctness of his views, and we 

 are now glad the vote decided the matter in 

 that way. 



We want to make The Condor an attrac- 

 tive magazine in general typographical 

 make-up, as well as from a scientific and pop- 

 ular standpoint, and to that end we will wel- 

 come relevant suggestions from anyone. 



The present editor is sorry he cannot see his 

 way to adding a juvenile or school department 

 to this magazine as has been urged from sev- 

 eral directions on this coast. We really do 

 not see the expediency of such a move. Bird- 

 Lore is filling the educational field admirably; 

 why should we compete with it? And, too, we 

 do not believe it would meet the approval of 



anywhere near a majority of Cooper Club mem- 

 bers. 



It has been our conviction that we should 

 conduct a medium for the publication of seri- 

 ous ornithology, not necessarily technical, 

 however. We believe nothing at all should be 

 published anywhere, that is so obscurely 

 couched as to be incomprehensible to the^ 

 average reader. The most important fact and 

 profound philosophy should be stated "popu- 

 larly," in the sense of being clearly worded, 

 with an elimination of unusual terms. 



On the other hand we abhor that style of 

 article in which one must search for the germ 

 of information within a frothy mass of inconse- 

 quential chatter, as is the characteristic of so 

 much of our "Nature" literature nowadays. We 

 do not believe our mission to be to furnish 

 ' 'light reading' ' for people who are not inter- 

 ested enough to care for real bird-study. 



The Washington Audubon Society was or- 

 ganized at Seattle, the 20th of April, with W. 

 Teon Dawson as President, and H. Rief as 

 Secretary. 



Contrary to our contention in our last No- 

 vember issue that the "House Finch" is uni- 

 versally called "Linnet," Mr. E. R. Warren 

 tells us that in Colorado 99 out of every 100 

 persons familiar with "House Finches" never 

 heard of "Linnets"! However, we feel quite 

 sure that the latter name prevails over the 

 largest part of the bird's range. 



Walter P. Taylor is spending the summer in 

 natural history field-work along the Colorado 

 River near Searchlight. 



COMMUNICATIONS 



baird's or baird? 



Editors of The Condor: 



It will be small compliment to the reader, 

 I fear, if I confess in advance that I have not 

 freshly reviewed the discussion upon the 

 mooted point of the possessive or adjectival 

 form of bird names. But perhaps I shall suc- 

 ceed in stating the case freshly, if for no other 

 reason than that no account has been taken of 

 the excellent matter already published. 



The trottble is that contention has been made 

 for the use of pronominal adjective or possess- 

 ive, whereas, in truth, both have proper uses. 

 And this failure to grasp the validitj^ of both 

 forms is due chiefly to a failure in distinguish- 

 ing between a bird as an individual and a bird 

 as a species or a member of a species. 



Take for example Centronyx bairdii (And.), 

 called since its dedication in 1843 Baird's Spar- 

 row. Now the contention is made that Spencer 

 F. Baird — quite apart from the fact that he is 

 dead — had no possessive right in certain spar- 

 rows flocking and summering in Dakota, and 

 that, therefore, it is incorrect to speak of 



