no 
TI-IK CONDOR 
Vor,. XI 
THE CONDOR 
An Illustrated Magazine 
of "Western OrnitKolog'y 
Publish! Bi-Monthly by the Cooper Ornitholo^i 
cal Club of California. 
JOSEPH GRINNELL, Editor. - Berkeley. Cal. 
J. EUGENE LAW. Business Manager, Hollywood. Cal. 
W. LEE CHAMBERS. Business Manager, Santa 
Monica, Cal. 
WILLIAM L. FINLEY 
ROBERT B. ROCKWELL 
Hollywood, California: Publisht July 17, 1909 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Dollar and Fifty Cents per Year in tile United States, 
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countries in the International Postal Union 
Claims for missing or imperfect numbers should be 
made within thirty days of date of issue 
Subscriptions and Exchanges should be sent to the 
Business Manager. 
Manuscripts for publication, and Books and Pampers 
for review should be sent to the Editor. 
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EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
Pacific Coast Avifauna no. 5 (Bibliography 
of California Ornithology) and no. 6 (Ten- 
year Index to The Condor) have been mailed 
free to Honorary Members of the Cooper Club 
and to all Active Members not in arrears for 
dues. If you have failed to receive your copies 
it may mean a mistake on the part of the man- 
agement, or it may mean that you haven’t paid 
up your 1909 dues! Our Business Managers 
announce that they will not send out either 
The Condor or Avifauna to delinquent mem- 
bers. Nor will delinquent suscribers receive 
this magazine longer than one issue beyond 
the expiration of their subscriptions. This 
seems a drastic measure, but prompt payments 
are essential to our keeping above water, 
financially. 
As hearing on a particular case we have in 
mind, where in a local list a species is publisht 
as “undoubtedly occurring” in the region 
under consideration, tho actual records are yet 
lacking, we quote the following appropriate 
remarks made twenty-five years ago by 
Stejneger (.-Ink I, October 1884, p. ,359): 
“Conjectures as to distribution are always 
dangerous. The next step is, that an uncriti- 
cal author takes up the statement as an 
undoubted fact, the assertion goes into other 
works, and future writers will have the greatest 
difficulty in tracing it back to its original 
source. There is no need of extending the 
geographical range of a species before actual 
facts are at hand. ” 
A distinctly retrograde step is that which we 
understand the A. O. U. Committee has just 
taken: to retain the apostrophe and ”s” in 
common possessives. This is not a matter gov- 
erned by anj- code of nomenclature, ami the 
committee is clearly open to the grave charge 
of arbitrarily making the ruling (to be followed 
in the forth coming Check-list of North Ameri- 
can Birds) contrary to a concensus of opinion 
among ornithologists. It will be recalled that 
we put this very point to a vote of Condor 
readers (which include all ornithologists in 
America), and it resulted unequivocally in the 
support of our custom to discard the useless 
“ ’s. ” Any lay bird student is just as well 
qualified to pass judgment upon convenience 
in vernacular names as any member of the A. 
O. U. Committee, perhaps better; and the latter 
should keep in mind the preferences of the 
majority when preparing the Check-List which 
must serve as our guide to bird names for 
probably the next decade. 
We regret that certain bird students in Colo- 
rado have gone so far in their differences of 
opinion as to bring in the personal element. 
In other words, what was originally ornitho- 
logical has gradually (level opt into a personal 
quarrel without general interest, and we have 
been comnelled to refuse space for the latest 
‘‘communication.” We believe large good 
mav result from argumentative discussions, 
and all such, relating to ornithology, we are 
glad to rmblisli. But when a controversy, 
such as the one referred to, becomes* mere’}' 
nersonal, a magazine with the purposes of The 
Condor is not the nlace for its exploitation 
(excepting as advertising, at regular rates!). 
The TTnii. Dean C. Worcester. Secretarv of 
the Interior for the Phillipine Islands, deliv- 
ered two popular lectures on birds before the 
Philippine Teachers’ Assembly for 1909. This 
Assembly is held, during April and May, at 
Baguio, Province of Benguet. the summer 
resort of the Islands. Mr. Richard C. Mc- 
Oregor, assistant in the Bureau of Science, 
Manila, was an instructor at the Assembly, 
and gave a course in the identification of birds, 
and the preparation of specimens. 
Word comes from Harry S. Swarth, that 
his explorations in the archipelago of south- 
eastern Alaska are bringing results of unusual 
interest, 'three species of birds have been 
found entirely new to the avifauna of Alaska; 
and several hitherto unvisited islands have 
been found to harbor peculiar associations of 
bird-life not met with previously. 
Wilfred II. Osgood, for nearly twelve years 
identified with the important work of the 
Biological Survey, has withdrawn from that 
institution, to accept the position of Assistant 
Curator of Mammalogy and Ornithology at the 
Field Museum, Chicago. Ilis new duties be- 
gan July 1st. 
j- Associate Editors 
