iSy 
THH CONDOR 
Nov., 1901. 
Individual Aid in the Welfare of the Club. 
The opening editorial in the September Cox- 
OOR deals fittingly with the man}' disadvan- 
tages under which the Cooper Club laljors ow- 
ing to the Club’s nienibershi|) being scattered 
over so much territory, but “which may in 
the future be largely remedied" etc. The ar- 
ticle is well written and forms a rough sum- 
mary of the general conditions incident to the 
management of the Cooper Club of today. It 
also shows that out of a total active member- 
ship of 170 or more, a small minority practi- 
cally constitutes the entire working force and 
considering this fact the growth of the Club 
in the past eight \ ears froiii four members to 
its present size, reflects greatly on the minor- 
ity. Besides this though, a heavy percentage 
of the original reading matter found in The 
Condor comes from the ])ens of this same 
minority gratuitously. This latter is not men- 
tioned in the editorial ([noted, but any one can 
assure himself of the truth of it t)y looking 
over the [(US': numbers of The Condor. 
vSo much for the enviable showing made by 
those members constituting the minority. 
Now about the remaining members, compos- 
ing the majority, not that I care to make invid- 
ious comparisons, but because due considera- 
tion of the subject should prove of value to any 
member. All of us are interested to a greater 
or less degree in the study of birds, although 
some are undoubtedly too busy in other paths 
of life to do much more than welcome the ad- 
vent of The Condor on alternate months. 
Some few are beginners, and the insecurity of 
their foothold in the study [)revents them at 
present from taking an active [lart in the work 
of the Club. 
A great many keep records or casual notes of 
one kind or another on the bird life around 
them, and some elaborate theirs no doubt, in- 
to series of notes, complete as far as possible on 
some more note-worthy species or grou[)s of 
species. In this way in the course of a year or 
so, considerable amount of material is jotted 
down, most of it of value to the writer or he 
would not bother about it. The greater part of 
it consists of little facts or incidents pertinent 
to bird history and while of value to the indi- 
vidual, it would i)rove ec[ually as interesting to 
the Club-at-large. Probably a large share of 
these notes or records are written and kept by 
Club members who, though t X) far removed 
fnjm headquarters to take an active [lart in the 
transaction of routine business, are still, in 
every .sense of the word, active field workers. 
Many of them live in the more 
remote corners of the state and for 
that very reason what ornithological 
work they do is [)ossessed of a greater value, 
for they are resident observers in localities 
where other members can at the best jiay otdy 
strays visits of a few weeks duration. 
But for all that we rarely hear from them 
either in the regular Club meetings or 
through the pages of The Condor and the 
question is where does all that good material go 
to? In conclusion, the acknowledged object of 
the Club is the highest advancemeut of the 
science of ornithology in California, and it 
should also be ihe aim of every one of its 
members to aid as far as possible in the mu- 
tual advaucement of all the members, rather 
than the self-advancement of individual mem- 
bers. JOilN J. Wn,i,i.\M,s. 
Applegate, Cat. 
^ ^ 
COMMUNICATIONS. 
RECONNOISSANClfS: A RliPIA’. 
PIditors The Condor: — 
The co-authors of “A Summer Reconnois- 
sance in the West," Wilson Bulletin No. 33, 
seem to take e.xception to my "destructive" re- 
view and criticism which a|)peared in Til:: 
Condor recently. 
If they had made it as plain in Bulletin No, 
33 as they do in their replies, that the list was 
not intended to be of any general scientific va- 
lue, the paper would not have called for criti- 
cism from anyone If a crime has been com- 
mitted it was in taking thestatenients seriously, 
but knowing of ,Mr. lones' previous careful 
and conscientious work about Oberlin I have 
no a|)ologies to make for supposing this was in- 
tended to be equally accurate. 
Certainly if a wester ornithologist should 
visii Oberlin for a week or ten days and record 
tw'O to four birds that do not occur there at all, 
and a number of others as rare as the Carolina 
Paro(|uet or the Short-billed Marsh Wren, he 
would exiiect to be called upon by the whole 
local club for explanation. In this case I was 
delegated to do it. 
.-\dmitting that the Reconnoissance w'as not 
intended to haveany special value, why should 
exce[)tions be taken when inaccuracies are 
|)ointed out? We are pleased to note that an- 
other trip is being [(lanned "with scientific 
settings,” which will insure accuracy and 
therefore be welcome b\- all who are wrestling 
with the intricacies of geogra[)hical distribu- 
tion in Califorria. P'r.vnk S. 1 t.vt'.c, ett. 
J’dsaitena, Cat. 
.ADVICE FDR OODODISTS. 
Editor Condor: Many a time when blowing 
a small egg with a pi[)e I have nicked it when 
introducing the pipe through the snrill blow- 
hole. But I don't do that any more. Instead 
of using a blow])i[)e I now pull a small grass 
stem and insert the soft white end of it into 
the egg. This delicate end can be bent in any 
direction, and eggs can be blown with smaller 
holes than with a glass pipe. Everyone of 
these small grass stems is a hollow tube, and 
some of them can be found that are no larger 
in diameter than a needle. They are gathered 
j list as you want to use them, and your eggs 
can be blown as soon as taken. Now don't go 
to work and try to introduce the stiff green 
