Mar. 1903 I 
THE CONDOR 
57 
pected to be done will be published in the May 
Condor. Howard Robertson, 
49 Courthouse, Los Angeles. 
An Open Letter. 
Aeton.\ Farm, Longmont, C01.0., 
Ficb’y 10, 1903. 
My Dear Fisher: 
I am so enthused over the last issue of The 
Condor that I must write you a few lines, 
to try and spread my enthusiasm. Barring the 
unfortunate necessity of the “Memoriam” to 
our dear friend Barlow, the issue was certainly 
a “cracker- jack” — in fact the culmination of 
many good numbers which came last year. The 
extra good paper you are using in the make-up 
may be a trifle expensive now, but will prove 
cheap in the long run. It will stand the test 
of time, binding and usage much better than 
some journals of reference now twenty years 
old which were not published with the same 
foresight. 
Periodically someone gets off a howl about 
the “Good old days,” and “the O. and O.,” 
“What it used to be” and “Why cannot we 
have something as good now.” But The 
Condor of today is a much better paper than 
the “O. and O.” ever was. We must not for- 
get that we are twenty years older than we 
were in those “Good old days," and possibly 
with our advanced information we would not 
now enjoy the “O. and O.” as we did then. It 
certainly was delightful and amusing reading 
for us: the narratives of those “big sycamore 
climbs” and “stick in the mud” collecting 
trips. But as a magazine for reference, what 
is its price now compared to back copies of 
“The Nidologist” and the “Bulletin of the 
Cooper Club?” The “O. and O.” i/L/ hold the 
old crowd together. That was a good feature 
and that is what our Eastern friends realize is 
lacking in the journals now in their hands. 
Lattin’s little sheet is filling its place and so 
is the “Auk.” “Bird-Lore” and the “Osprey” 
are trying to do justice to the medium, with 
the result that the collectors are divided be- 
tween the two and are not in unison. Your 
country out on the coast, to-day, has the best 
collectors, the best union, and consequently 
the best journal. 
Last fall I experienced delightful visits with 
many of the “Old Boys," Jackson, Parker, Nor- 
ris, Crandall and several others; men whom 
you will remember assisted in the make-up of 
the “O. and O.,” and I talked Condor to them 
pretty strong. They all have great admiration 
for the workers out on the coast, and for your 
publication. They regret by contrast, their 
own lack of union and the decrease of good 
field work in the East. .Since you juiblish as “A 
Magazine of Western Ornithology” do you care 
to open your columns to the use of Eastern 
subscribers? 
Oology was priviary with us in the “Old 
Days,” now it is secondary (to Ornithology). 
That fact has worked the change in the char- 
acter of our reading matter, and those old 
collectors, who have not put the scalpel in a 
more convenient place on their table than the 
drill and blow-pipe, are behind the times and 
thereby deplore the loss of the old “O. and O.” 
At the .same time I find they value a set of eggs 
coming from a man with a good “skin re- 
cord” like Anthony, McGregor or Grinnell 
about six times as much as they do a set from 
some of “Lattin’s bovs.” Fisher! you should 
have seen the look of satisfaction on Crandall’s 
face as he pointed out to me certain sets of 
eggs, here and there, with the remark that 
“they were some of Chester Barlow’s collect- 
ing.” Cordially yours, 
Fred M. Dii.i,e. 
Mr. Dille’s pertinent inquiry in his “open 
letter” as to whether The Condor intends to 
adhere strictly to the policy enunciated in its 
title “A Magazine of Western Ornithology” 
may be answered in the affirmative. While we 
are always glad to publish notes and papers of 
a general nature from our eastern friends, 
those articles which are faunal or biograph- 
ical must be distinctly western, or in other 
words must fall within our “geographical 
limits. ’’ When the present editor was asso- 
ciated with the late Chester Barlow, it was 
decided that these limits should arbitrarily 
extend from the west coast eastward to include 
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico 
and Texas, Outside of the United States our 
scope is somewhat elastic, and conqirises the 
Pacific Coast generally, and islands of the 
eastern Pacific. 
The right sort of bird material is limited, 
and we do not care to encroach on the rightful 
territory of eastern ornithological journals. 
The Cooper Club, too, is a distinctly western 
organization, and it is believed that to be suc- 
cessful, the more western its magazine the bet- 
ter. 
Obituary. 
Thoma.s E. Sekvin. 
Thomas E. .Slevin died at his home in San 
P'rancisco, December 23, 1902. He was born 
January 20, 1871, in New York City, and came 
to the Pacific Coast in 1878. His love of 
natural history began when he was a mere bov 
and exhibited itself in a characteristic wav. 
The first fruits of his ornithological endeavors 
are still preserved. From his father, the late 
T. E. Slevin, L. L. D., a founder of the Geo- 
graphical Society of the Pacific Coast, he in- 
