Nov., 1908 



MINUTES OF COOPER CLUB MEETINGS 



241 



SOUTHERN DIVISION 



SEPTEMBER. — The September meeting was 

 called to order by Vice-President H. J. L,elande 

 at his office in the City Hall, Los Angeles, 

 Thursday evening, October 1, 1908, with mem- 

 bers Plenry B. Reading, Loye Holmes Miller, 

 Howard Robertson, Alphonse and Antonin Jay, 

 Otto Zahn, Pingree I. Osborn, Howard Wright 

 and J. Eugene Law present. 



The minutes of the last meeting, June 25, 

 1908, were read and approved. The application 

 of Luther J. Goldman to reelection to active 

 membership was presented by the vSecretary. 



A letter was read from Rudolph M. Anderson, 

 who writes from Herschel Island, Northwest 

 Territory, where he was on August 11, 1908, 

 enroute to the more remote Arctic with an ex- 

 pedition sent by the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, New York City. He says in 

 part: "I have had a splendid season's collect- 

 ing, and made a few good photos. Among the 

 sets taken along the line (proceeding north- 

 ward from Alberta to Great Slave Lake) are 

 Bohemian Wax-wing n-6, Pine Siskin n-3, 

 Blackpoll Warbler n-4. White Pelican (at 

 rookery at the Movmtain Portage of Slave 

 River) yi, ]A,, %, Slate-colored Junco n-4, 

 Montana Jimco n-4, Olive-backed Thrush n-3, 

 etc. ' ' 



"I sent back about one hundred skins from 

 Ft. Norman in July, and have just packed up 

 fifty taken the past month between Ft. Mc- 

 pherson and this place. The latter lot included 

 good series of Snowflakes, Lapland Longspurs, 

 Horned Larks, Savanna Sparrows, both adults 

 in moulting plumage and young in juvenile 

 plumage. Took one specimen of Wheatear or 

 Stone-chat, July 31. Have paid especial atten- 

 tion to Juvenal and eclipse plumages. 



"An interesting capture was a nest of four 

 young Golden Eagles, just able to fly from 

 nest on August 4th. The nest was on the face 

 of a steep mud cliff near the sea on the west 

 side of Herschel Island. The huskies told 

 me that the eagles have nested there for sev- 

 eral years. This may perhaps be near the 

 bird's northern breeding range. 



"The Pacific whaling fleet have so far failed 

 to put in their expected appearance and we are 

 short of necessary supplies, principally "grub", 

 and have consequently been obliged to post- 

 pone our projected trip eastward to the Copper- 

 mine River country, until next summer, proba- 

 bly. We (Mr. Stefansson and myself) have 

 two good 30-foot whaleboals, staunch sailing 

 craft, have enlisted the services of several 

 "huskies", and expect to cruise westward 

 along the northwest coast of Alaska, probably 

 starting tomorrow, hoping to find a good winter- 

 ing place somewhere between Flaxman Island 

 and the mouth of the Colville River. Possibly 



we may work westward as far as Point Barrow. 

 At present we have twenty-three dogs with 

 voracious appetites and a great problem is to 

 keep them fed. Fortunately fishing is good. 

 We drew in 78 fair-sized whitefish at one haul 

 of a 30-foot gill net this morning. 



' T hope to get west as far as Flaxman Island 

 before the latter part of this month, before the 

 caribou leave the coast. At any rate we shall 

 have some caribou shooting, as well as Alaska 

 mountain sheep, this fall. Both these species 

 are found near the north coast in fair numbers. 

 I do not know whether this letter will get out 

 by some whaler this summer or by the Dawson 

 Patrol next winter." 



As a matter of general interest to bird 

 students, a small groTip of fossil bird bones was 

 exhibited by Mr. Miller of the State Normal 

 School. The specimens were recently found 

 in quaternary deposits of Southern California 

 and represent some large species of water birds. 



The distal end of the humerus was shown 

 in comparison to that of the white pelican and 

 a coracoid in comparison with the same bone 

 of the brown pelican. In the former case the 

 fossil forip exceeds the recent by a goodly mar- 

 gin, while in the latter case the fossil was 

 double the mass of the recent form. A frag- 

 ment of the beak of another form was also ex- 

 hibited which shows, seemingly, relationship 

 with the boatbilled storks. 



Mr. Miller is assembling as large a collection 

 of skeletal material of the larger birds as pos- 

 sible for the identification of such fossil re- 

 mains and made an appeal to Cooper Club 

 members to help in the establishment of such 

 a collection in the community, where it will be 

 at the disposal of all interested in comparative 

 osteology. 



The identity of fossils of game birds in frag- 

 ments or of fragments of sea birds cast on the 

 beach, sometinies becomes a matter of impor- 

 tance. The body bones of the condor and of 

 golden eagles would be exceedingly valuable 

 material for comparison in this special case. 



The specimens shown are exceedingly sug- 

 gestive of the avifauna that at one time ex- 

 isted here. They were foimd in company with 

 the remains of the saber-toothed tiger, the 

 giant ground sloth, mastodon and the camel. 

 If these beasts once walked the plains about 

 Los Angeles, what might not have been flying 

 above their heads? 



Mr. Pingree I. Osborn exhibited a pair of 

 dark-colored Socorro Petrels ami a pair of Cas- 

 sin Auklets, with an egg of the latter, all taken 

 at Coronado Islands, early in the summer. A 

 very black hawk taken near La Jolla, Cal., on 

 Sept. 11. 1908, was shown by ]\Ir. Roth Rey- 

 nolds. This proved to be the Zone-tailed 

 Hawk. Adjourned. 



J. Eugene Law, Secretary, 



