The inadequacy of the present Museum staff will soon be made manifest 

 as the work of guiding visitors develops. No such problem has ever confronted 

 a public museum before, for all that is usually required of an attendant is that 

 he make himself as inconspicuous as possible, and that he simply keep an eye 

 on the crowd. But in the M. C. O. it is different. Not over six or eight visitors 

 can inspect a given drawer of eggs at one time. A sudden influx of visitors 

 means the immediate enlistment of the entire personnel of the staff, or else in- 

 convenient and unprofitable crowding. We wonder if there are not among the 

 membership of the Museum of Comparative Oology a few, say two or three, 

 who would enjoy this sort of thing, who would gladly volunteer for this very 

 helpful and privileged service? We can easily picture some veteran oologist, 

 able, affable, and possibly affluent, who would like nothing in the world better 

 than to point out the beauties and meanings of birds' eggs to an appreciative 

 and ever changing audience. Or we can as easily picture some ambitious young- 

 ster, whose folks might be willing to live in the most beautiful country on earth 

 and who would love to saturate himself (or herself) in the atmosphere of natural 

 science, and who as a means to that end might like to "try it out" on the public. 

 We'll agree to check up on the statements of this hypothetically vivacious young 

 person from time to time, and see that they square with the M. C. O. traditions. 

 Who will be the first? 



The installation oj beach sand as a drawer lining is a tedious and somewhat 

 exacting process; but it is being steadily carried out at the M. C. 0. We are 

 thoroughly satisfied with this mode, not alone for the support of the larger eggs 

 but for the very tiniest as well; and we can glimpse the time when the antiquated 

 "cotton bat" shall be banished from our halls. There can be no doubt that in a 

 display collection the bedding of eggs in a smooth, level layer of fine gray beach 

 sand is ne plus ultra. The eye thenceforth will never accept any other artifice. 



The Galapagos Expedition. — "Expedition" sounds very pretentious for a 

 young man who fares forth alone upon a scientific quest; but it may be allowed, 

 in this instance, to cover the good wishes and prayers which went with him. As 

 elsewhere related, William Oberlin Dawson caught a ride to the Galapagos 

 Islands with the Jefferson Yacht "Invader," sailing in January. He arrived on 

 Albemarle Island on the 12th of April, and put up at Villamil, a small Ecudorian- 

 Spanish fishing village on the southern end of the island. Here the young man 

 obtained a good series of nests and eggs of several of the Geospiza finches; but he 

 found the problem of local transportation insoluble, and reported in July that 

 he would catch the first tramp steamer which offered transportation back to the 

 mainland, where he expects to engage in agriculture or mining until such time 

 as a power boat can be provided adequate to cover the demands of navigation 

 throughout this difficult group. That the treacherous channels of the Galapagos 

 are no place for picnickers is evidenced by a recent occurrence. At the time of 

 young Dawson's arrival at Villamil, the Governor of the Galapagos, or "Archi- 

 pielago de Colon," Sr. Bolivar, resident on Chatham Island (San Christobal, 

 Espagnol), was visiting the village in a good-sized sailing schooner, the only 

 one owned upon the islands. Two days later "El Gubernador" set out with a 

 party of fifty to return to Chatham; and two months later the Governor's son, 

 worn with anxiety, managed to reach Villamil in an open boat to inquire what 

 had become of his father and his men. Ouien sabe . But the young oologist 

 declares that he will solve the Galapagos problem if it takes him ten years. 



The Field Season oj 1922. — An M. C. O. field party of three members, 

 augmented in June by some lay help, left Santa Barbara late in May for a two 

 months' sojourn in the high Sierras. After some delay incident to late snows, 

 headquarters were established at Mammoth, in southern Mono. County, and 

 work was conducted at various levels up to 12,000 feet. In spite of the late 

 season, or perhaps because of it, everything seemed to break just right; and we 

 returned July 19th from the most successful season in the history of the M. C. O. 

 Save for the Yellow Rail, n/4, elsewhere reported, there were no startling dis- 

 coveries; but really adequate series were obtained of such species as Gray Fly- 

 catcher {Empidonax griseus) — or at least of the desert breeding Empidonax; 



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