102 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
mission to hold separate meetings in their locality. For a time the southern 
organization was known as the “Annex”, hut has latterly been known as the 
Southern Division. One need only point to the harmony that has always ex- 
isted between these two really separate organizations to show the character 
of the membership of the Cooper Ornithological Club. The jealousy and 
attendant ill feeling that so often exists under similar circumstances has been 
almost wholly absent. 
The worth of a thing is often proved by testing it. The loyalty of Cooper 
Club members was put to the test in the early days. It was some of the younger 
members, Avho, against the iirotest of the more conservative, dared to start the 
publication of a bulletin. It Avas the same young contingent Avhich through the 
years of 1899-1901 helped to make up the cash deficit resulting from the small 
membership roll in those initial years. 
Such then Avere the beginnings. Noav as to our jDresent status: We have 
a membership at the present time of 439. Nor is our membership limited to 
California, for Ave liaAm representatives living in all the principal countries of 
the Avorld. The centralization of activities is shared by tAvo divisions, one in 
southern California Avith meetings held each month in Los Angeles, at the 
Museum of History, Science and Art, and the other in the San Francisco Bay 
I'egion, Avith monthly meetings held at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in 
Berkeley. A bi-monthly periodical, The Condor, is published, Avhich last year 
totaled 246 pages for the volume and Avhieh Ave are told by naturalists abroad, 
is not excelled in general Avorth by any other ornithological paper of its class. 
The purposes of the Cooper Ornithological Club as stated on its official 
letter-heads are as folloAvs : 
For the observation and co-operative study of Birds, because of the resulting 
pleasure: 
For the spread of interest in Bird Study, so that this pleasure may be shared by 
others; 
For the conservation of Birds and Wild-life in general, for the sake of the future; 
For the publication of Ornithological Knowledge, as being a contribution to 
Science. 
These then are our ideals. Every member should be acquainted Avith these 
ideals and do his best to further them, or else the Club fails of its objects. T 
am sorry that I cannot discuss each one of the four. This being impossible, I 
have done the next best thing and attempted to treat in detail of one phase of 
the Avork of the Club. It deals perhaps more closely Avith the last named 
object — the publication of ornithological knoAvledge as being a contribution to 
science, but it has ramifications Avhich necessarily include the other objects 
above mentioned. It is on the Cooper Club member in relation to scientific 
Avork that I Avish to speak. 
If Ave folloAV the general trend of the research work carried on by mem- 
bers here in California Ave find that it can be classified as follows : 
1. Collecting of bird skins, nests, and eggs. 
2. Preparation of local lists. 
3. Recording of field observations, such as migration and nesting dates, and 
habits. 
4. Systematic descriptions of new species and races and systematic position of 
groups. 
5. Photography. 
6. Faunistics, or the study of distribution. 
7. Economic investigations. 
8. Conservation of wild-life. 
