EDITORIAL COMMENT 
159 
EDITORIAL COMMENT 
A Northern California Section of the American Society of Mammalogists was 
formed at Berkeley, California, on the evening of February 5, 1920. Mr. Tracy I. 
Storer informs us that the meeting, which was held at the California Museum of 
Vertebrate Zoology, was attended by the following: A. K. Fisher, J. Grinnell^ 
A. B. Howell, W. C. Jacobsen, I. M. Johnston, J. E. Law', L. Little, D. D. McLean, 
J. Mailliard, C. R. Russell, T. I. Storer, H. S. Swarth, and H. G. White. Officers 
elected for the ensuing year are as follows: President, Joseph Dixon; Vice- 
President, Joseph Mailliard; Secretary, Tracy I. Storer. Until further notice 
the Section will meet on the first Thursday of every month at the Museum of 
Vertebrate Zoology, University of California. Mr. Storer extends an invitation 
to all members of the Society who may be visiting California to “drop in’’ at any 
of the meetings and will be glad if such members can present papers before the 
section. 
Dr. Walter P. Taylor tells us of the organization at Seattle, Washington, on 
January 7, 1920, of the Pacific Northwest Bird and Mammal Club, with officers 
as follows: President, Prof. F. S. Hall, University of Washington; Vice-Presi- 
dent, J. Hooper Bowles, Tacoma; Secretary and Treasurer, Stanton Warburton, 
Jr. , University of Washington. Thirteen persons were present at the organization 
meeting and letters were received from others who wished to become charter 
members. The State Museum at the University of Washington is the official 
home of the club and the field of operations includes northern Oregon, Wash- 
ington, British Columbia, and Alaska. 
The actual date of publication of the February number of the Journal of 
Mammalogy was March 2, 1920. The schedule for printing the Journal has now 
been advanced, so that the date of issue for each number should come early in 
the regular month of publication, and chances for serious delay will be reduced 
to a minimum. 
It is only natural that many of the members of the Society or readers of the 
Journal should be more interested in North American mammals than in those of 
any other country; and it is doubtless true that a large proportion of our pages 
should at present be devoted to papers onNearctic forms. It comes as something 
of a surprise however that members should seriously consider and actually advo- 
cate limiting the Journal very largely if not altogether to accounts- of our native 
species. It is highly proper that certain individuals or institutions should 
specialize on the fauna of a definite region, on a limited part of such fauna, or, 
if they w'sh, on a single family or genus. But for one who does specialize in any 
of these ways, no matter how intensive his studies, a general knowledge of the 
group at large would seem to be imperative. A zoologist may confine his real 
labors, his published results, to a single group or a limited locality but unless his 
interest and study extend to related forms and regions Ms work can not be of the 
highest order. A real interest in the study of mammalogy carries with it an in- 
tense desire for information beyond the limits of a county, state, or continent. 
What of the exact relationships with Old World or Neotropical forms? How about 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY, VOL. I, NO. 3 
