Its ambitions in this direction are boundless. Or at least they are measured by no 

 limitations of questing time or housing space, but only by the numbers of the birds 

 themselves. The institution realizes its responsibility for the safe-keeping of these 

 world treasures as well as for making them available to the utmost for the uses of 

 Science. The Journal of the Museum of Comparative Oology will endeavor to be at 

 once the exponent of these ambitions and the pledge of their realization. 



More specifically, the Journal intends, eventually, to report the activities of the 

 Museum, to illustrate its aims and accomplishments, to advise its clientele of official 

 actions and policies, to review and inculcate field methods and methods of museum 

 practice, and to provide for the friends of the institution a convenient vehicle of com- 

 munication. In the purpose of the official board, the Journal is intended only as the 

 first and least pretentious of what may hopefully become four periodicals. To char- 

 acterize this quartet without assigning names to its members, we should say that the 

 Journal will be the administrative and personal record. This should be followed 

 by a strictly scientific and technical quarterly. This, in turn, by a popular record, 

 devoted to the field activities of the rising generation. And, lastly, we hope to 

 propose a purely esthetic medium, an artistic and literary journal of ornithology. 

 We are moved to share this rather premature confidence with our friends, in order 

 that they may not expect too much of this unpretentious diary of progress, nor judge 

 it by standards of completeness to which it can make no claims. 



THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE OOLOGY 

 WHO AND WHAT. 



The world museum of birds' eggs was launched under a dual sponsorship, a social- 

 civic, represented by Mr. Joel R. Fithian, who has faithfully served the institution 

 for three years as its president; and the scientific, represented by William Leon 

 Dawson, the ornithologist. 



In response to their invitation, a carefully chosen circle of friends grouped them- 

 selves, — a circle which, as the event proved could be depended upon to appreciate an 

 institution having a world outlook, while at the same time commending such an insti- 

 tution's appeal to local pride and its promise of local service. A charter was issued t>y 

 the State of California on the 27th of January, 1916; and on the 31st of January the 

 fifteen incorporators became a Board of Trustees, a self-governing, self-perpetuating 

 body, pledged to the maintenance in Santa Barbara of an institution whose every 

 resource is dedicated to the furtherance of the cause of ornithological science, and, in 

 particular, to the exploitation of that knowledge which may be acquired through a 

 study of birds' eggs. 



Of the personnel of the original Board something more may fittingly be said at 

 another time. It will be enough for our present purpose simply to introduce the 

 members by name (and upon the editor's sole responsibility), with a brief word of 

 identification: 



Mr. Joel Remington Fithian, President (retiring January 21, 1919, because of duties 

 in France) is, by acclamation, Santa Barbara's social mentor and indefatigable host. 

 His best-deserved title is "Father of the Grizzlies'', and when you recall that "The 

 Grizzlies" are the 144th Field Artillery, California's crack artillery regiment, you 

 know the kind of man Mr. Fithian is. 



Mr. William Norman Campbell, Vice-President, also a Director of the First 

 National Bank of Santa Barbara, is another of Montecito's best-loved hosts, full of 

 good works. 



Mr. Clinton B. Hale, Vice-President, is a thorough sportsman, president of the 

 Polo Club, and has backed the Y. M. C. A. to the limit in its French campaigns. The 

 M. C. O. is only one of his many hobbies. 



Mr. Edward Payson Ripley, Vice-President (now President), for twenty-one years 

 President of the Santa Fe System, needs no introduction to the American public. 

 Mr. Ripley's fortunate interest in our enterprise was probably due. at the outset, to 

 the fact that Frank C. Willard, the well-known Arizona collector, is a brother of his 

 son-in-law and right hand man, Nelson W. Willard. 



William Leon Dawson, the Secretary (also the writer of these linos), did off 

 "The Birds of Ohio" and "The Birds of Washington" some years ago. and has been 

 grinding away on "The Birds of California" lor eighl years (now, thank good- 

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