174 
THE CONDOR 
Voi.. VI 
THE CONDOI^ 
An Illustrated Magazine of Western 
Ornithology 
Published Bi-monthly hy the Cooper Ornithologi- 
cal Club of California 
WALTER K. FISHER, Editor, Palo Alto 
JOSEPH CiRlNNELL, Business Manager and 
Associate Editor, Pasadena 
R. E. SNOPCiRASS, Associate Editor 
Palo Alto, California: Published Nov. 17, 190-1- 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
Price in the United States, Canada, Jlexico, and U. S. 
Colonies one dollar a year; single copies twentv-five cents. 
Price in all countries in the International Postal Union 
one dollar and a quarter a year. 
Subscriptions should be sent to the liusiness Manager; 
manuscripts and exchanges to the Editor. 
NOTES AND NE:WvS 
At the regular meeting held in Oakland. 
November 5, the following nominations were 
made for officers for 1905; president, Mr. Jos- 
eph Mailliard; first vice-president, Miss Helen 
Swett; second vice-president. Prof. J. O. Snj'- 
der; treasurer and business manager, Mr. Jos- 
eph Grinnell ; secretary, Mr. Chas. S. Thompson. 
With this issue volume six is completed. Club 
members and subscribers will confer a great 
favor if they remit their dues or subscriptions 
promptly to the business manager. We have 
some plansfor further improving Tii E Condor, 
and any great delay on the part ot our constitu- 
ents in remembering the year-end obligation is 
a trifle embarrassing — to us at least. 
In his review of the July Auk in October Bini- 
Lore, Dr. J. Dwight, Jr. takes exception to 
the admittance of ‘Baird sparrow’ and ‘Virginia 
warbler’ to the pages of the Auk, instead of 
the possessive case being used. “Evolution,” 
writes Dr. Dwight, “may some day eliminate 
the ‘s’ as unfit, but except in geography it is 
still customary to write English as ‘she is 
w'rote.’ ” Undoubtedly the omission of the 
possessive form in personal names, given in the 
sense of dedication, will long remain a matter 
of personal opinion and preference. Dr. 
Dwight is in error, however, in supposing that 
the elimination of the possessive is restricted to 
geographical names. Some botanists, at least, 
employed the form before it was introduced into 
ornithology, and such names as Douglas spruce, 
Torrey pine, Fraser fir, Jeffrey pine, Parr}' 
pinyon, Sargent palm, Bebb willow, Bartrani oak, 
and others ad libitum are now in current use. As 
has often been stated, the sparrow was dedicated 
to Spencer F. Baird, and the nse of his name was 
never meant to express or imply any proprie- 
tary rights over the species or the individuals 
thereof. If it is proper and natural to omit the 
possessive form in the case of mountains, rivers, 
trees and flowers, is it not logical to extend the 
nsage to birds and other animals? It was this 
fact, and a desire to write English as ‘she is 
wrote,’ that influenced this journal to advo- 
cate a general adoption of the non-possessive 
form, shortly after Dr. Merriam introduced it 
into ornithological literature, in North Ameri- 
can Fauna No. 16 (1899). At any rate it is per- 
haps interesting to consider how differently 
two persons may interpret the same text. 
Through the kindness of Dr. Jordan the Club 
has been granted the privilege of placing its 
books and magazines on the shelves of the Bar- 
bara Jordan Library of Ornithology at Stanford 
University. This library, which is dedicated to 
the memory of Barbara Jordan “who knew and 
loved the birds,” occupies one of the rooms on 
the first floor of the new Zoology building. The 
room is perfectly lighted and is provided with 
numerous working tables, while along one side 
are the handsomely carved book shelves. In 
the center of these, above, is a bronze tablet of 
dedication, with a family of quails in bas-relief. 
Immediately below is a cabinet containing Bar- 
bara Jordan’s collection of birds. The room is 
used by advanced students of ornithology, and 
is one of the pleasantest in the splendid new 
building. 
The annual meeting, January 14, will be 
somewhat different from those of former years, 
in that it will be held in one of the good res- 
taurants of San Francisco. The Club will have a 
large room to itself and it is hoped that, in view 
of the occasion and place, a goodly number of 
our members will make a special effort to 
attend. We will convene for dinner at 8 and 
afterwards have the annual meeting and social 
good time. Probably it will be advisable to 
have a short business meeting before the din- 
ner. Members will be notified about two or 
three weeks before the meeting and will be 
asked to respond whether they intend to be 
present. The committee earnestly desires that 
members cooperate to make this “the best 
meeting yet. ” 
Although all the returns are not yet in it 
seems probable that the amendment to the 
Constitution of California, exempting the Cali- 
fornia Academy of .Sciences from taxation, has 
received a majority of favorable votes. 
In volume six there are seventy halftone il- 
lustrations which is a substantial gain over 
forty-three in volume five and thirty-two in 
volume four. The majority of illustrations 
during the past year have been such that we 
can point to them with pardonable pride. But 
just watch for the January number! 
The Twenty-second Congress of the Ameri- 
ican Ornithologists’ Union will convene in 
Cambridge, Mass., on Tuesday, November 29, 
1904, at 10 o’clock A. M. The meetings will be 
held in the Nash Lecture room. University 
Museum, Oxford Street. 
Mr. William L. F'inley has gone east to at- 
tend the meeting. 
