200 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIV 
THE CONDOR 
A Magazine of 
'Western Ornithology 
Published Bi-Monthly by the 
Cooper Ornilholo^ioal Club 
J. CRINNELL. Editor. Berkeley. Ca.liforrkia 
HARRY S. SWARTH, Assochle Editor 
J. EVGENE LAW \ „ 
W. LEE CHAMBERS / 
Hollywiod, California: Pobiiskd Sept 28, 1S12 
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EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
This issue is concluded with the annual 
“Club Roster”. It shows the membership of 
the Cooper Ornithological Club on September 
1, 1912, to be 410 in the active class, and six 
in the honorary class. We would be glad of 
information as to any errors in spelling, or 
changes in address, so that the Secretary’s 
list may be perfected accordingly. 
By the election of Mr. Frank Stephens to 
Honorary membership in the Cooper Club, 
just distinction has been conferred upon a 
man who is closely identified with the develop- 
ment of the ornithology of the southwest. As 
set forth in the Club’s minutes on a subse- 
quent page, Mr. Stephens may be fairly credit- 
ed with having obtained a large part of the first 
information in regard to many of the birds 
peculiar to Arizona and southern California. 
This field-work was carried on, too, at a time 
when conditions made it far more difficult 
than we now can realize. 
Cooper Club members will have noted with 
approval the new seal appearing on the title 
pages of Avifauna numbers 7 and 8. This 
design was executed and presented to‘ the 
Club by the one-time editor of The Condor, 
Mr. Walter K. Fisher, who thus registers his 
continued loyalty to the Club’s welfare. 
Mr. L. E. Wyman, of Nampa, Idaho, spent 
the month of June in the high mountains of 
central and northeastern Idaho, collecting- 
birds and mammals for the Biological Sur- 
vey. 
Albert H. Frost, for some years a Cooper 
Club member, and always an enthusiastic de- 
votee of oology, died at his home in New 
York City, January 27, 1912. Mr. Frost vis- 
ited California in 1898, and at that time be- 
came widely and favorably known to many of 
the bird students on this coast. 
SHALL CALIFORNIA HAVE A 
“NO-SALE OF AMERICAN DUCKS” 
LAW? 
The report of an Ohio State Senate Com- 
mittee for 1857, contains the following : 
“ The passenger pigeon needs no protection. 
Wonderfully prolific, having the vast forests 
of the North as its breeding grounds, travel- 
ing hundreds of miles in search of food, it 
is here today and elsewhere tomorrow, and 
no ordinary destruction can lessen them or 
be missed from the myriads that are yearly 
produced.” 
Note the following from the same report : 
“The snipe needs no protection. It does 
not breed in Ohio, but merely tarries a while 
in its migration to the breeding grounds in the 
extreme North. The snipe, too, like the pig- 
eon, will take care of itself, and its yearly 
numbers cannot be materially lessened by the 
gun.” 
After the few years which have elapsed since 
then, we are in a position to realize how 
short-sighted the American people have been 
in the matter of adequate and timely protec- 
tion of wild life. It is furthermore clearly 
apparent that the reason for this lack of fore- 
sight has been the easy but erroneous belief 
in the inexhaustibility of our wild game. But 
why discuss a matter so clear to every one? 
In the official “Hearings” (1912) before the 
United States Senate Committee on Forest 
Reservations and Game, to which the McLean 
bill providing for Federal protection of mig- 
ratory birds was referred, our own Senator 
Perkins (California) said; “On the Pacific 
Coast they sa}^ game birds are increasing.” 
Suggestions heard from other quarters in- 
dicate the prevailing dense ignorance con- 
cerning this important matter. Competent 
testimony from many points in the state has 
it that every game bird, with the exception 
of quail in certain localities, is rapidly de- 
creasing in numbers. 
The ducks are going down with such speed 
that two species, the Red-head and Wood 
Duck, are now facing extinction. All this 
while the Army of Destruction is increasing; 
means of rapid transit from city to hunting 
grounds are being perfected ; shot guns are 
becoming continually more highly efficient 
killing machines ; and the waste land suitable 
to wild life is becoming more and more re- 
stricted. 
New York and Massachussetts now pro- 
hibit absolutely the sale of American-killed 
wild game of any kind. Shall we in Califor- 
nia put through a law of this kind, or shall 
we be listed with those other states and coun- 
tries in the “It might have been” column? _ 
Every Cooper Club member should realize 
that the cause is one which issues a pointed 
challenge to every nature-lover. What can 
