May, 1916 
EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
131 
THE CONDOR 
A Magazine of 
Western Ornithology 
Published Bi-Monthly by the 
Cooper Ornithological Club 
J. GRINNELL, Editor 
HARRY S. SWARTH, Associate Editor 
J. EUGENE LAW ) „ . 
W- LEE CHAMBERS } Bu5 ' neSS Mana & e » 
Hollywood, California: Published June 8, 1916 
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EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
At the regular meeting of the Northern 
Division of the Cooper Ornithological Club 
held April 20, 1916, the following resolution 
was unanimously adopted: 
With the death of Professor Wells W. 
Cooke at Washington on March 30th, Amer- 
ica has lost a working ornithologist of fore- 
most rank. His career has been notable 
for consistent adherence to one line of in- 
vestigation — the distribution and migra- 
tion of North American birds. His achieve- 
ments in this field comprised the diligent 
collection and classification of vast num- 
beVs of facts, and the deliberate and cau- 
tious deduction of generalizations from 
these. The wide recognition of the results 
of Professor Cooke’s work as thoroughly 
sound, attests to his faithfulness to detail. 
We can only deplore with sadness the pre- 
mature termination of a career of further 
great promise as well as creditable accom- 
plishment. 
In view of the above considerations let 
it be resolved that we, the members of the 
Cooper Ornithological Club, hereby extend 
to the family and intimate friends of the 
late Professor Cooke our sincerest sympa- 
thies. 
Mr. Harry S. Swarth, who for the past 
three years has served as Assistant Director 
and Zoologist at the Los Angeles Museum 
of History, Science and Art, has rejoined 
the staff of the California Museum of Verte- 
brate Zoology, with which institution he had 
previously been affiliated from 1908 to 1913. 
Mr. Swarth resumes the duties of Curator 
of Birds, which duties involve not only the 
care of the extensive collections of birds in 
the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, but also 
enquiry into the systematic status of the 
lesser worked western bird groups. 
We have frequent occasion to recommend 
titles of ornithological books or papers such 
as can be considered representative of the 
highest types of ornithology for the use of 
serious beginning students. It may be of 
interest to call attention here to some of 
these examples — not that we believe our 
judgment final but that the attention of 
others may thus be called to the matter, and 
possibly further or different decisions 
elicited. 
Among books which may be properly 
classed as literature we can think of none 
pertaining to western North America that 
has appealed to us more strongly than the 
late Bradford Torrey’s “Field Days in 
California” (1913). As we know through 
personal contact, Mr. Torrey was an 
especially accurate observer, and, gifted as 
he was with a ready pen and a large knowl- 
edge of literature, he was able to make 
record of his findings in a most attractive 
and at the same time authoritative way. 
As a high type of ornithological research 
based on field exploration we would hark 
back a good many years to Stejneger’s “Re- 
sults of Ornithological Explorations in the 
Commander Islands and Kamtschatka” 
(1885). In this report we find set forth, not 
only lists of specimens secured with critical 
notes on species characters and local dis- 
tribution, but also a considerable proportion 
of sound philosophical comment. Particu- 
larly noteworthy, and acceptable today in 
practically every detail, are Stejneger’s 
generalizations in regard to migration in 
northwestern North America and in Asia. A 
careful re-examination of this paper has 
rewarded us with a number of new ideas, or 
clarified notions we already held. 
In the increasingly important field cf 
geographical distribution nothing has yet 
appeared to supplant in point of interest and 
thoroughness C. Hart Merriam’s “Results of 
a Biological Survey of Mount Shasta” (1899). 
There are here marshalled in convincing 
array data supporting the life-zone concept 
together with various dependent considera- 
tions having to do with distribution in 
