July, 190S 



EDITORIAL NOTES 



183 



THE CONDOR 



An Illustrated Magazine 

 of ^A'^estern OrnitHology 



Published Bi^Monthly by the Cooper Ornithologi- 

 cal Club of Californiai. 



JOSEPH GRINNELL, Editor, - Berkeley. Ca^I 



J. EUGENE LAW, Business Manager, Hollywood, Cal. 



WILLIAM L. FINLEY ) 



ROBERT B. ROCKWELL / ""' 



)cia.te Editors 



Hollywood, California: Published August 28, 1908 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



One Dollar and Fifty Cents per Year in the United States 

 Mexico, and U. S. Colonies, payable in advance 



Thirty Cents the .-ingle copy. 



One Dollar and Sevenly-five Cents per Year in all other 

 countries in the International Postal Union. 



Claims for niissinsj or imperfect numbers .should be 



made within thirty days of date of issue. 

 Subscriptions should be sent to the Business Manager. 



Ma-nuscripts and Exchanges should be sent to the 

 Editor 



Advertising Rates on application. 



EDITORIAI. NOTES 



We received three responses to our request 

 for someone to compile the ten-year index to 

 The Condor. Messrs. Kaeding, Pemberton 

 and McGregor each separately asserted their 

 willingness to undertake the work, which, by 

 the way, is no easy or quickly accomplished 

 operation, as these gentlemen fully understood. 

 This just shows that there are men ready to 

 work in the cause of Ornithology and our mag- 

 azine. The ultimate usefulness of a ten-year 

 index to active ornithologists is too obvious to 

 need emphasis here. 



By reason of precedence in applying, Mr. H. 

 H. Kaeding was "awarded the contract", and he 

 promises its completion soon after the first of 

 the coming year. 



Another problem confronts us, that of finan- 

 cing this index. We should like to issue it free 

 to all Cooper Club members who desire it. This 

 would mean that relatively few copies would be 

 bought, as there are but few sets of The Condor 

 outside of Club memljership. In other words 

 we cannot depend upon the sale of copies to pay 

 the cost of printing the index. This expense 

 (about $100) must be provided for by contribii- 

 tion. The Editor now solicits correspondence 

 relative to this matter. 



In view of the kaleidoscopic changes in the 

 nomenclature of our birds it is no wondor that 

 the lay ornithologist has become confused. 

 Articles received by us for publication in The 

 Condor present a variety of scientific names. 

 Those of the 189.=i A. O. U. Checklist, without 

 Supplements, are still the ones most commonly 

 employed. Yet the newer rulings of the A. O. 



U. Comtuittee are often introduced in greater 

 or less proportion; so that a lack of uniformity 

 prevails in our pages. 



The question arises as to the responsibility of 

 the Editor for the scientific names employed in 

 the articles. It seems to us there should be 

 uniformity. Sometimes we are requested to 

 bring the nomenclature of the article submitted 

 up to date, and this we try to do in such cases 

 (to the best of our knowledge). But in other 

 instances, it would be the extreme of oificious- 

 ness for the Editor to modify the names in any 

 way. Thus we are in a quandary. As soon as 

 the new A. O. U. Checklist appears (early in 

 1909), we shall ask our contributors to conform 

 to its nomenclature exactly, except in special 

 cases where they have critical reason to differ. 

 But until then, chaos will probably continue to 

 prevail. 



A great deal of nonsense has been written of 

 late in support of bird protection. The cause is 

 worthy enough. Biit we doubt the ultimate 

 efficacy of bland mis-statement. So often the 

 decrease or disappearance of game and song 

 birds is laid to the "greed of the sportsman", or 

 to the pot-hunter and his ' 'quest of the almighty 

 dollar. ' ' These are doubtless destructive factors 

 in some cases. But the present status of the 

 buffalo or of the passenger pigeon cannot be 

 laid to that caiise, as has been re-iterated. Nu- 

 merous railroads, fences, stock-ranches, and 

 farms, would altogether prevent the buffalo 

 from existing, with its inherent habits, at the 

 present day. The destruction of the hard-wood 

 forests, on the breeding grounds of the passen- 

 ger pigeon, removed its food supply. 



The rapid settleiuent of the West is accom- 

 plishing mighty faunal changes. The cutting 

 of timber, clearing of brush-lands, drainage of 

 swamps, and cultivation of prairies, are bound 

 to bring about the scarcity or total extinction 

 of many of our native birds and mammals. 

 Others will increase, and new ones will invade 

 our territory as it changes. Perhaps no one 

 factor is having so profound an effect on the 

 fauna of certain parts of California, as the diver- 

 sion of mountain streams for power or irriga- 

 tion. But all of this is a necessary accompani- 

 ment of the growth of the nation; and its effects 

 upon the native life of the region must be ac- 

 cepted philosophically by nature lovers. It 

 can't be helped, and there is no use of fuming, 

 and calling our fellow men greedy, and com- 

 mercial, and cruel. 



We learn that INIr. John F. Ferry, of Lake For- 

 est, Illinois, returned on June 8 from the Isth- 

 mus of Panama, having completed a collecting 

 tour for the Field Museum of Chicago. Mr. Ferry 

 brought home with him a valuable and exten- 

 sive series of birds' skins and eggs, secured by 

 himself in Costa Rica, Ve,nezuela and Panama. 

 These are now being arranged and classified at 

 the Museum, where Mr. Ferry is assistant in 

 the department of ornithology. 



The lateness of the present issue of The Con- 

 dor is due to the Editor's three months absence 

 in the field, from which it was out of the ques- 

 tion to try to handle the proof. From now on 

 our address is Berkeley, CaliforJiia. 



