10 (, 
THE COXDOR 
Vol. XYI 
terl)a lance the damage caused to sprouting grain, and whether the grosbeak 
can pay for the fruit destroyed by its destruction of scale and other insects. 
If we are to meet the demands of the day, therefore, we must concentrate 
some of our energy on the solution of the economic problems connected with 
l)irds. Tlie collector should by all means save stomachs and so doubly justify 
the killing of the birds collected. 
Xor is the food habits of birds the oidy economic problem. The fast dis- 
ajjpearance of our game birds is creating a loss to the state that is not fully 
appreciated at the present time. It took many years to successfully arouse 
public opinion in regard to another of our natural resources, forests. It may 
take a similar period of time to draw proper attention to the need for the con- 
servation of our wild life, but it must be done. Every member of the Cooper 
Oimithologieal Club should be an active conservationist, for upon whom can 
the burden be shifted? Surely not iipon those who take no active interest in 
bird-life. Those who are intimately acquainted with the facts must not only 
be the exj^erts with the evidence but must be the prime movers in an active 
campaign to preserve the relatively scanty remnant of wild-life which is left. 
T am glad to be able to recall to your attention that the Cooper Club has 
during the past year taken a definite and active stand for the conservation of 
wild-life. Growing out of the appointment of a committee on conservation by 
the Northern Division, one of our members, Mr. Walter P. Taylor, was instru- 
mental in organizing the California Associated Societies for the Conservation 
of Wild Life, of which the Cooper Club is now a member. Not only did much 
of the time and energy of some of our members go into the recent campaign 
l)ut also some of our funds. As a result, this associated society has been able 
to bind together aboiit 10,000 persons who are pledged to carry on a campaign 
of education and to stimulate legislation in behalf of this great natural asset. 
The recent campaign waged during the last session of the state legislature, 
although somewhat disappointing, has certainly showed us the enemy in all his 
strength. We are therefore in a better position to renew the attack and to 
carry it to a finally successful issue. 
I have now pointed out some of our achievements and attempted to show 
their relative merit. If I should go still farther and attempt to prophesy as 
to the future scientific work of the Club, I would say that it will be largely 
characterized by the use of the experimental method. The present-day trend 
of biology is in that direction and it is to be expected that ornithologists Avill 
follow this lead. Another reason Avhy this method is going to be used in the 
future is because Ave ha-A^e come up against that big question, — Avhy do birds 
do this and Avhy do birds do that ; — and the only logical Avay of attacking that 
problem is to use the experimental method. 
One does not need a laboratory nor even apparatus in order to perform 
an experiment. Nor is it necessary to keep the birds experimented upon in 
captivity. In the laboratory of nature may be found both subject and appai’a- 
tus. HoAvever, there rests on the performer of the experiment the d\ity of fur- 
nishing the originality and foresight demanded and the ingenuity to be used 
in the arrangement of controls. The road Avhieh leads to a better knoAvledge 
of life-histories and the mysteries of migration is to be built upon experimental 
inethod. 
Workers in science are often justly criticized because they seldom make 
th(‘ product of their endeaAmr aAmilable to the general reader. The populari- 
