May, 1914 
THE COOPER CLUB MEMBER AND SCIENTIFIC WORK 
10.3 
This sequence is a natural one. “It is characteristic of the progress of 
research that as one proceeds the horizon widens and new questions siiring up 
in the pathway of the investigator.” 1 should say also that it is a progressive 
one. By that I do not mean that the former problems have been solved or 
that these first ones were of less importance, but that more difficult ones have 
been discovered and given prominenee. It is because of this very progressiv- 
ism that scientists the world over are so optimistic. 
It has been an evolutionary trend, a trend from work requiring little skill 
or eoming to the individual most naturally, to work requiring more skill and 
more concentration of purpose. Let us pass in review some of these problems 
which have interested and are interesting members of the Cooper Club. 
Collecting specimens naturally formed the foundation on which the more 
advanced work has been accomplished. In the early days collecting was of 
the desultory type. An egg or two from a nest, with little or no recorded 
data, was sufficient to give the oologist a standing. Now not only is the whole 
set considered requisite, but in critical cases a parent bird and the nest as well, 
is preserved along with fully written notes as to circumstances, exact location, 
date and collector. A specimen or two of each species of bird was sufficient 
for the early collector. A series of each of the more interesting species or of 
a particular group is now the ideal. As in other sciences the time for special- 
ization has arrived. It is now no longer worth while for the younger member 
of the Cooper Club who is beginning to collect, to build up a collection of all 
of the birds of the state, or of the eggs of all of the birds of the state. Rather 
should the attempt be made to restrict collecting to a particular group in which 
the student is interested and is likely to be able to contribute actually new 
knowledge. The aim should no longer be quantity but quality. 
The study of plumage cycles forms a field almost wholly neglected. We 
do not know the sequence of plumages even of some of our commonest ducks. 
Let the collector of bird skins specialize, therefore, and, by obtaining a com- 
plete series, place before us the information necessary to fill in this gap in our 
knowledge. 
The variation in size, shape, color and color pattern of the eggs of a par- 
ticular group of birds furnishes an intricate problem and one worthy of more 
attention than it has as yet received. Nor have we exhausted the possibilities 
as regards the finding of yet undiscovered nests and eggs. The nest and eggs 
of the Harlequin Duck, Saw-whet Owl, and Crossbill have never been taken in 
California, although these species are known to breed within the state. 
Here then are two important problems which claim the attention of him 
who follows that instinct which is so strong in most of us, that of making col- 
lections, be they of birds, birds’ nests, or birds’ eggs, or all three. 
If there is anything in our work that we ha\m possibly overdone, it is the 
plain faunal list. No worker in ornithology will for an instant underestimate 
the value of the faunal list. Nevertheless, he must admit that the value of 
such a list increases in proportion to the annotations. The mere locality list 
of species is of prime importance only when it comes from new localities, and 
2 iot all of us are able to seek out such. The annotated list, on the other hand, 
seldom affords a duplication and always offers a comparison of life-history 
notes. It also has historical value, for it usually affords basis sooner or later 
for a study in the change in the status of birds. Avifaunas of the type of 
Willett’s “Birds of the Pacific Slope of Southern California” and Tyler’s 
“Birds of the Fresno District” must be held up as models of the kind of work 
