104 



THE CONDOR 



Vol. XIX 



THE CONDOR 



-A. Magazine of 

 Western OrnitHolog'y 



Published Bi-Monthly by the 

 Cooper Ornithological Club 

 J. GRINNELL, Editor 

 HARRY S. SWARTH, Associate Editor 

 J. EUGENE LAW 

 W. LEE CHAMBERS 



Business Managers 



Hollywood, California: Published June 1, 1917 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



One Dollar and Fifty Cents per Year in the United 

 States, payable in advance. 



Thirty Cents the single copy. 



One Dollar and Seventy-five Cents per Year in all 



other countries in the International Postal Union. 



COOPER CLUB DUES 



Two Dollars per year for members residing in the 



United States. 

 Two Dollars and Twenty-five Cents in all other 



countries. 



Manuscripts for publication, and Books and Papers for 



Review, should be sent to the Editor, J. Grinnell, 

 Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of Cali- 

 fornia, Berkeley, California. 



Claims for missing or imperfect numbers should be made 

 of the Business Manager, as addressed below, within 

 thirty days of date of issue. 



Cooper Club Dues, Subscriptions to The Condor, and 

 Exchanges, should be sent to the Business Manager. 



Address W. Lee Chambers, Business Manager, 

 Eagle Rock, Los Angeles County, California. 



EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 



It may prove stimulative to western bird 

 students to know something of the ornitho- 

 logical work in progress among their fel- 

 lows. The following data gathered by the 

 Editor are not likely to be anywhere near 

 complete, and further information is desira- 

 ble, particularly from persons not here men- 

 tioned. Mr. Edward R. Warren, of Colorado 

 Springs, has in preparation an extended pa- 

 per on the life history of the White-tailed 

 Ptarmigan in Colorado. Mr. George Willett 

 is working toward the compilation of a pop- 

 ular handbook on the birds of southern Cali- 

 fornia, an extension in scope of Avifauna No. 

 7. Dr. T. S. Palmer, of the Biological Sur- 

 vey, Washington, has for some time inter- 

 ested himself in the biographies of Ameri- 

 can ornithologists. In his researches in the 

 annals of western ornithology he has come 

 across some interesting information in re- 

 gard to the routes of such early field work- 

 ers in California as Gambel, Heermann and 

 Kennerly. All this information it is planned 

 to present in a series of articles. Dr. Pal- 

 mer is also making a nomenclatural study 

 of the various names applied to the Red- 



breasted Sapsucker. Dr. W. H. Bergtold, of 

 Denver, is making an elaborate investiga- 

 tion of the period of incubation in birds. Mr. 

 Aretas A. Saunders is preparing a state list 

 of the birds of Montana which will probably 

 be published as one of the Cooper Club Avi- 

 fauna series. Mr. George Finlay Simmons, 

 of Houston, Texas, is engaged in working up 

 the birds of the Austin region for publica- 

 tion by the University of Texas. Dr. Harry 

 C. Oberholser, of the Biological Survey, 

 Washington, has practically finished a com- 

 prehensive report on the birds of Texas, the 

 early publication of which is looked forward 

 to with interest by all those who know of 

 Mr. Oberholser's painstaking methods of 

 work. Dr. L. H. Miller, of Los Angeles, has 

 in preparation an exhaustive report on the 

 Avifauna of the Rancho La Brea, summariz- 

 ing all that he has learned during his sev- 

 eral years study of that wonderful fossil de- 

 posit. Mr. Donald R. Dickey, of Pasadena, 

 is making a study of the California Jay with 

 special respect to its feeding habits and its 

 relation to other birds through the destruc- 

 tion of their eggs and young. This is to be 

 illustrated by a number of remarkable pic- 

 tures showing the jays in action. Mr. E. M. 

 Anderson, of Victoria, B. C, is continuing 

 his field work in British Columbia, with a 

 view to ultimately compiling a fully anno- 

 tated list of the birds of that province. Mr. 

 J. E. Law is working up the systematic stat- 

 us o'f the Cliff Swallow in the West, and of 

 the Palmer Thrasher in Arizona and Sono- 

 ra. Mr. J. L. Sloanaker, of Kallispell, Mon- 

 tana, is assembling information concerning 

 the birds of Flathead County, supplement- 

 ary to that already published by other au- 

 thors. Mr. H. S. Swarth, of the staff of the 

 California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 

 is revising the systematic status of the 

 brown towhees and of the jays of the genus 

 Aphelocoma. Dr. H. C. Bryant, continues his 

 work on food of various California birds; 

 just now the ducks are claiming his atten- 

 tion. Mr. T. I. Storer is occupied with a 

 study of the Natural History of the Yose- 

 mite region. Dr. J. Grinnell is collaborating 

 with Mr. Storer in his work on the Yosemite 

 natural history, and is also putting much 

 time on a second installment of his biblio- 

 graphy of California ornithology. 



We are indebted to Mr. J. Eugene Law for 

 getting up the Cooper Club membership list 

 appearing in this issue. There is a total of 

 601 names. In compiling this roster each 

 name has been cited as its owner usually 

 signs it (except that titles, "Prof.", "Dr.", 

 etc., are inserted between surname and giv- 

 en names) rather than by any consistent 

 scheme of using one or all given names in 

 full, or only the initials. Members are re- 

 quested to notify J. Eugene Law, Business 

 Manager, Hollywood, California, of any er- 

 rors or changes in name or address. 



