Page:Condor10(5).djvu/26

 208 THE CONDOR VoL. X nished by Mr. Bryant who refused to publish that or any other record himself. Fortunately, Bryant's notes, written on the tag of their specimen, have enabled Thayer anti Bangs to kill my erroneous record of Selasphorus plalycercus.--RmHgD C. MCGgGog, Bureau of Science, .ranila, 1 . L Pipilo Clemente Excluded from Santa Cruz Island Avifauna.--After careful examina- tion and cmnparison of measurements of a series of towbees from Santa Cruz Island, I am satis- fied that this form is lYpilo maculalus megalonyvc and not lYpilo clemenlcv, as heretofore sup- posed. In the specimens from San Clemente Island there seems to be a slight difference in the size of bill and feet. In coloration the difference is extremely slight, if any, compared with lipilo maculalus megalonyvc. However, my series from Cieracute is too small to judge this frcnu. There is no doubt, however, that the form found on Santa Cruz Island is not l'ipilo cieraeniac but/. m. megalony:c.--C. B. L:ro, Long Beach, California. A Plan For Co-operative Ornithology.--The progress which has been made in the study of American Ornithology during the )ast fifteen years has been truly remarkable and it is probably a safe assmnption that nowhere else on earth has as nmch scientific knowledge been gathered in so short a time. Yet notwithstanding this fact, not one work of any great magni- tude has been undertaken, dealing with the life histories of North American Birds, since the peerless Bendire completed the second volume of his "Life Histories," in 1895. During all the intervening time an army of bird lovers have been constantly at work col- lecting a vast amount of data and information regarding the life histories of our birds, the greater part of which has found its way into thumb-worn notebooks and dusty pigeon-holes. A very small part of these investigations have been given the publicity they justly deserve thru the medium of our scientific periodicals; but it is undoubtedly true that the pnblished portion of ornithological knowledge constitutes a very insignificant part of the whole. The realization of this fact has always been a source of wornlet and regret to me; and in this connection I have often asked myself the question, "Why cannot the bird lovers of the cramtry band together for the purpose of putting iu hlack and white a great deal of the knowledge that now is unavailable thru lack of publication." Further thought along these lines made it plain that the first requisite in an nmlertaking of this kiml was an instrument of publicity, and the management of Tx; Co,DOg promptly Offered their magazine as a solution of this problem. The details of an undertaking of this kind are far too complicated to be outlined 1)3' any one person;but very roughly my ideas are as follows: There are very few bird students but who have certain species of birds with which they are intimately acquainted. According to location and environment these species vary among differ- ent students, and those students whose acquaintance with a given species is very intimate, must of reason be the recognized authorities on those given species. For example, after his wouder- ful experience among the California Condors and the subsequent study he made of them, there are very few who would not admit that Mr. Finley was an authority on these birds. The same is true of almost any student; he has his "pet" birds that come in for a large share of his atten- tion, and his knowledge of these species is necessarily much greater than that of another stmlent whose interest is centered on other forms. Now if the men who are authorities on certain species would umlertake the cmnpilation of existing information regarding these species from all sources, and the combined results of this investigation could be embodied in one work, the result would umloubtedly be the greatest or- nithological work that was ever published. One of the great advantages of a co-operative plan of this kind would be that the work could be divided among all the students of the country instead of deluging one man with this vast amount of data. On the othe r hand the chief difficulty would probably lie in securing enough men who are authorities on certain species, who would be willing to assume the responsibility of collecting and compiling the necessary information. Wide publicity, a thoro organization, and the active cooperation of a large part of our active students would he absolutely necessary to the ultimate success of the undertaking; but once the work is gotten under way, the characteristic perseverance of American Naturalists would doubtedly carry it thru, aml when completed the ornithological fraternity would be the proud possessors of a monumental work. I fully realize that upon first thought the whole idea seems rather vague anti etherial, and without active co-operation from a larg"e nmnber of stmlents it would be entirely impractical; but it is a question well worth some thought from CoNDog readers. My ideas are necessarily very crude and incomplete, anti I should like very much to see this question fully discussed.--R. B. ROC:wLL, Denver, Colorado.