Mar., 1921 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 69 
around. On our approach the parent bird dived with the young one on her back and 
carried it several yards under water. 
ered or lost. 
The young bird came up first and seemed bewild- 
We paddled up to it and my friend answered its plaintive peeping, where- 
upon it swam up to the canoe and into his open hand. We admired the curiously colored 
little fellow a while and then turned him loose.—A. D. HENprrson, Belvedere, Alberta, 
December 20, 1920. 
EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
The Cooper Ornithological Club, by 
amendments to its constitution duly ap- 
proved by both Divisions in January and 
February, 1921, has created an executive 
body to be known as the Board of Gover- 
nors and to consist of the ex-presidents and 
the acting officers of the Club. This reor- 
ganization seemed expedient in view of the 
gratifying growth of the Endowment Fund, 
in order to insure this Fund to the pur- 
pose for which it is being created, namely, 
for the publication of contributions to or- 
nithological knowledge. The Fund itself 
will insure continuity of output. 
Dr. Miller raises some questions in his 
“communication” in another column which 
have important current bearing. He urges 
that great care be taken in levying criti- 
cism, either privately or in print, to couch 
one’s terms in courteous phraseology, so that 
no feeling of personal resentment can possi- 
bly be aroused. With this ideal we heartily 
agree. But it is not an easy thing to ac- 
complish in practice, no matter how care- 
fully one may strive with this very point in 
view. We believe that honest, outspoken 
criticism does function usefully, even when 
published (and, we believe, Dr. Miller would 
readily grant this). Direct, clear criticism 
is needed now and then, from one authority, 
of the writings of another. This is stimulat- 
ing and beneficial, to the lesser students in 
the same field as well as to each of the 
principals themselves. Jf the nicer proprie- 
ties have been observed in mode of ex- 
pression, so much the better. We will wel- 
come contributions to THE Conpor which are 
wholesomely critical in nature. 
Part one of The Birds of California has 
appeared, and parts two and three are an- 
nounced to come out shortly, with others up 
to 30 or so to follow. Thus the work so 
long in hand by Mr. William Leon Dawson 
has begun to bring tangible results. And 
no subscriber who has seen this first in- 
stallment, of 64 pages and a full complement 
of colored plates, photogravures and _ text- 
illustrations, will be disappointed. This is 
far and away the best thing, from an artistic 
standpoint at least, that has ever been pub- 
lished concerning western bird-life; and the 
text is informational and entertaining to a 
gratifying degree. We congratulate the 
author upon the high merits of this initial 
installment, and extend our earnest wishes 
that nothing will interrupt the continuity 
of issue until the entire work is published, 
with the same plane of excellence main- 
tained throughout. 
The natural history collections of Mr. 
Harold H. Bailey, formerly of Newport 
News, Virginia, have been moved to Miami 
Beach, Florida. They will there form tle 
nucleus of a museum soon to be established 
in conjunction with a zoological park. Ex- 
hibits of mounted birds and mammals are 
planned, as well as a study collection. Five 
acres of ground have been allotted to the 
new project, and work has been started on 
the museum building. Mr. Bailey will be at 
the head of the museum and of the zoolog- 
ical garden. In connection with his new 
activities he already has well under way a 
book upon the birds of Florida, to be cf 
similar nature to his “Birds of Virginia”’. 
A letter received from Dr. Alexander 
Wetmore, now engaged in field work in Ar- 
gentina for the United States Biological 
Survey, contains a suggestion of the many 
interesting discoveries he is making. Dr. 
Wetmore arrived at Buenos Ayres on June 
21, in the winter season, and proceeded at 
once to extreme northern Argentina. There 
his work lay in “the strange and interesting 
area known as the Chaco, lying west of the 
Rio Paraguay and extending from northern 
Argentina north into Bolivia’. Later he re- 
turned southward with the advent of spring, 
encountering various Argentine species then 
on their spring migration southward to their 
breeding grounds, and, still later, toward the 
end of July, certain North American shore- 
birds just arriving at their winter home. 
Brief mention of a falcon with ‘“well-devel- 
oped powder downs”, of an ‘“odd-looking 
Mimid’’ with “broad lateral apteria in the 
feather tracts of the sides of the neck that 
in life are bright orange yellow in color”, 
and of a teal that habitually perches in 
trees, gives promise of future accounts of 
the anatomical peculiarities of tropical 
birds even more interesting than some Dr. 
Wetmore has already discovered in certain 
of our better known North American birds. 
