Nov., 1908 RETROSPECTIVE 217 



Club, called the Condor from 1900 on, to note the almost monthh^ improvement 

 in tone, t3^pography, size and general excellence. Local lists soon became prominent 

 and their value cannot be overdrawn. The practice of listing species bj^ their 

 scientific names, giving the vernacular name the minor place, soon became common 

 and marked a radical step for the better. In the issue of November, 1900, a t\-po- 

 graphical scheme was adopted of printing the scientific name of the species in heavy 

 type and the vernacular name in light small capitals that can hardly be improved 

 upon, and it is hoped that this method will be made permanent in the future. 

 Reference to pages 136-138 of that issue will show that no subsequent typographi- 

 cal scheme has been quite so successful in impressing upon the eye at first glance 

 the name of a species sought: and it may not be irrelevant here to once more urge 

 upon writers to allow no article to enter the pages of the Condor in which the 

 scientific name of the species is not given. True that a text of a popular article, 

 cumbered with scientific names, may be made bombastic and clumsj^ in the ex- 

 treme, but it must be remembered that our work is scientific first and popular sec- 

 ond; and if a species is mentioned in such a manner that it constitutes a record or 

 may constitute one, the giving of the scientific name is a debt the author owes to 

 ornithology. This is a subject that has been discussed from many points of view 

 in the Condor, and the delightful Sierran gem of J. M. Welch has been used as an 

 illustration of a type of article whose poetic charm would have been entireh^ de- 

 stroyed by the introduction of a single Latin name ( \'ol . I, pp. 108-111). True; 

 yet the Editor thought advisable to append a foot-note giving the localit}' written 

 about, and had the author appended a foot-note giving not only the locality and 

 date of his notes but the Latin names of the species referred to as well, the poesj- 

 of the writing would have been impaired not one whit, while the record would 

 have stood for all time as of some value to ornithology. 



This point cannot be more strikingly shown than by an inspection of the Sep- 

 tember issue of the Condor of the present year (Vol. X, Xo. 5). Of ten articles 

 printed in this issue that deal with records of species, no less than three — nearh' 

 one-third — are entirely valueless as records simplj' because the species are recorded 

 by the vernacular name alone. These are not articles that can be classed as "prose 

 poems" in any sense whatever; the}' are records — records of value and interest; 

 records of life histor}- phases, records of breeding ranges of species; yet they will 

 never get beyond the pages of the Condor, but, to quote Robert Ridgway in a let- 

 ter of some 3-ears ago (March, 1900), "must remain buried where the^' now are". 

 We are working in ornithology" for the love of it — not for money; our onW reward 

 is the satisfaction of work well done, and the name we ma}' make for ourselves; 

 but no one can hope to see his records quoted or passed on, to the credit of his 

 name, unless he makes those records complete and in the manner approved of by 

 the scientific world. 



In May, 1902, the incomparable photographs by Finley and Bohlman com- 

 menced to appear and marked another epoch in advancement. Field workers be- 

 gan to realize the immense value of good photographs, and where these had been 

 hitherto largely confined to the photographing of nests and eggs, a new impetus 

 was given to the photographing of liv^e birds in their native haunts that was evi- 

 denced b}" the increased number of ver^^ excellent half-tones of this nature that 

 made their appearance in the Condor during 1903 and thereafter. Particular men- 

 tion must be made of the realh^ remarkable series of photographs made bv Walter 

 K. Fisher on Laysan Island. 



The high grade of half-tones that formed the illustrations in the Condor at 

 this time rendered necessar}- the best grade of paper, and with increased excellence 



