THE CONDOR 
I Vol. Ill 
1 34 
THE CONDOR. 
Bulletin of the 
Cooper Ornithological Club 
OF CALIFORNIA. 
Published bi-monthly at Santa Clara, Cal., in the interests 
and as Official Organ of the Club. 
CHESTER BARLOW, - - Santa Clar a, al., 
Editor and Business Manager. 
WALTER K. FISHER, Stanford University Cal. 
HOWARD ROBETRSON, Box 55, Sta. A., Los Angeles. 
Associates. 
Subscription, {in advance) - - One Dollar a Year. 
Single Copies, ------- 25 Cents. 
Six Copies or more of one issue, - 12 % Cents Each. 
Foreign Subscription, $1.25. 
Free to Honorary Members and to Active Members not 
in arrears for dues. 
Advertising rates will be sent on apjMication. 
Advertisements and subscriptions should be sent to the 
Business Managers. 
Exchanges should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief. 
Entered at the Santa Clara Post-office as second class 
matter. 
This issue of The, Condor was mailed Sept. 17. 
EDITORIAL NOTES. 
A Club Some especially enthusiastic fall 
Congress and winter meetings of the Club 
for 1903. are being arranged, and it is hoped 
that members at a distance who have hereto- 
fore for various reasons been unable to attend 
a session of the Club, will make a special 
effort to be present at one or more meetings 
during the winter. With a membership ex- 
tending from Siskiyou to San Diego and east 
to the Sierras, and with but two recognized 
places of meeting in the State, the Club has 
worked under certain disadvantages which less 
energetic societies might never have overcome 
but which may in the future be ' largely 
remedied by the “chapter” arrangement out- 
lined by Mr. Daggett in our last issue. 
The business of the Club during the course 
of the year is transacted in both Divisions by 
perhaps one-third of the total membership, 
the remaining members being too far removed 
to take an active part. This same minority of 
the membership supervises the Club’s affairs 
and directs its destiny, while the remaining 
membership must perforce keep in touch witli 
the Club’s progress solely through the medium 
of The Condor. It is to the credit of these 
distant members that many' excellent sugges- 
tions and papers reach the Club through their 
energy and direct efforts. It is therefore 
hoped that many of the “outside” members 
will make an especial effort to attend at least 
the Annual Meeting of their Divisions and 
listen to the reports of the progress made 
during the year. 
It is apparent that at no distant date the 
Cooper Ornithological Club will find itself ar- 
ranging for a State Meeting. By no other 
means can the Club as a whole become cog- 
nizant of its strength or comprehend the 
extent of its membership. Out of its active 
membership of 160 it may safely be assumed 
that upward of one-third of the members of 
the Club would attend a general meeting 
offering a special programme, and those fa- 
miliar with the interest taken at the regular 
meetings can imagine the enthusiasm attend- 
ant upon bringing together 50 or 75 ornitho- 
logists, — all from a comparatively small area! 
We daresay that such a session would rival an 
A. O. U. Congress in point of enthusiasm! 
The Cooper Ornithological Club celebrated 
its eighth year of existence in June last, and 
the summer of 1903 will mark the tenth anni- 
versary of the Club. To the older members it 
will have been ten years of co-operative orni- 
thological study ; to the more recent members, 
a shorter enjoyment of the same accruing 
benefits, and to all it will bring the memory of 
many a pleasant meeting. There are those 
whose names have rightfully found a place on 
America’s ornithological roll of honor who 
wdll recount some of the earlier meetings of 
the Cooper Club with more feeling than they 
would perhaps today accord more notable 
gatherings of ornithologists. Wherefore we 
propose a rousing Cooper Club reunion for 
1903! 
Have we suffered a decadence in popular 
ornithological writings during the past decade? 
This query sounds a little incongruous in view 
of the present activity in ornithology, for 
there never was a time when specialists and 
systematists were as numerous as now, and the 
wave styled “ popular ornithology ” has swept 
the Union from shore to shore ; yet to the field 
workers of ten, fifteen or twenty years ago 
there must appear a dirth of that 
under-current of true enthusiasm such 
as guided their pens to produce some of 
the most earnest and soul-stirring appeals to 
the hearts of ornithologists that we have 
known. 
The old Ornithologist & Oologist has not 
yet ceased to be the rule by which more re- 
cent publishers have measured the merits of 
their magazines. Barring technical work and 
fads, how many latter-day bird magazines have 
approached this splendid idea! ? We do not 
care to venture the answer. Where are the 
pens that turn out such ringing narratives as 
those of long ago ? Where are the Hoxies, 
the Taylors, the Cahoons, the Clarks, the 
Rawsons of the ’8o’s? Many of them are still 
living and doubtless find bird-study as delight- 
ful as it ever w'as, but their pens have ceased 
to pass along the cogent thoughts and the en- 
thusiasm which are theirs. 
Ornithology has progressed immeasurably ; 
there is need for the great mass of technical 
w'ork now in progress, and the extreme type 
of popular ornithology is probaly doing some 
good, but between these two is a great and 
growing class of ornithologists who look to 
the field and woodland for their inspiration. 
Next to their direct field work they rely upon 
