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 July, 1912 EDITORIAL NOTES 15.5 THE CONDOll, Western Ornithology Publlehed Bi-Monthly by the Cooper Oenitho.lofflcal Club J. GRINNELL, Editor, Berkeley, Clifornia HARRY S. SWARTH.'Aosoci&te Editor J. EUGENE LAW } Buslucas M&fiagem W. LEE CHAMBERS Hollywood, California: Published July 30, 1912 SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Dollar and Fifty Cente per Year in the United States. Canada, Mexico and U.S. Colonies, Dayable in adwmce Thirty Crete the single copy. One Dollar and Seventy-five Cents per Y in all other countries in e International Posl Union. Claims for missiug or imperfect nutnbers should be made within thirty days of date of issue. Subscriptlone and Exchanges should be scut to the 11USilleSs Manager. Ma. nuscripta for publication, and Booke and P&pera for review, should  sent to the Editor. Advi*ing Rules on applicatiou. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS Ornithologists have always found difficulty in satisfactorily expressing the varying de- grees of abundance of the species in a region. In spite of efforts to attain to an accurate diagnosis through statistical methods, no practically workable scheme is forthcoming. We still rely on various words, of very in- definite meaning to be sure, but which give to the mind some notion of numbers of indi- v/duals as compared with what they might be under ideal circumstances. In Scie,ce for June 14, 1912, page 930, Mr. John Dryden Kuser calls attention to the multiplicity of words used, and misused, to designate relative abundance. He chooses a scale of eight members, as providing to his mind a workable nomenclature of occurrence. These are: abundant, common, frequent, un- common, occasional, rare, scarce and irregular. To our minds ust four terms come nearer the ticket: abundant, common, fairly com- mon. and rare. "Fairly common" equals I(user's "frequent", the latter being objection- able because of equivocal meaning. Any closer definition, short of actual censuses, seems to us futile. Of course other qualifying terms may be employed to advantage. A win- ter visitant may be common, and either regu- larly or irregularly so. Another species may he rare but regular in its appearance, or it may be rare and casual (that is, "accidental", though we dislike the latter term). Uricore- IllOn, occasional, rare, and scarce, are too nearly synonymous to be serviceable all at the same time: "rare" is sufficient. In this contlection we wish to point out the flagrant misuse q'f the word "resident" in many lists and even authoritative text-books, where birds are dscribed as being "summer residents or winter residents. Exphctly, resident means inh6biting a region continually, that is, throughout the year. Birds are either resident or non-re.sidept (migrant); if of the latter class, they ae-ither summer visitants, winter visitants or transients. A "visitant" may remain a few 'days in midwinter only, or it may be with us six months including the breeding season. A transient is, as a rule, a species which summers wholly north of the particular locality concerned and winters south of it; so that it occurs only during the period of migration. The four seasonal categories of birds may therefore be correctly alluded to as resident, summer visitant, winter visitant, and transient. Relative numbers of individuals involved may be denoted by the terms abundant, common, fairly common, and rare. Should the above suggestions have aroused difference of opinion on the part of any of our readers, we would be glad to publish open let- ters upon the subject.J. G. Mr. George Willett is spending the months of July and August in the vicinity of Sitka, Alaska, where he is making a study of the hird-life on the St. Lazaria Bird Reservation. This work is being carried on under the' di- rection of Dr. T. S. Pahner and in the inte- rests of the National Association of Audu- bon Societies. Mr. Alexander Wetmore is stationed for the year in Porto Rico, where he is conduc- ting investigations into the economic rela- tions of the. native birds under the auspices of the Bureau of Biological Survey. Mr. Wetmore reports a successful time so far. Porto Rican birds are relatively few in spe- cies, but many individually, and are thus im- portant to local interests. Pacific Coast Avifauna numbers 7 and 8 will be mailed free to Cooper Club members about August first. Number 7 is Willett's Birds of the Pacific Slope of Southern Cali- fornia; number 8 is .4 Systematic List of the Birds o[ California by J Grinnell. The Editors beg to remind Cooper Club members that short "Field and Study" notes are of usually greater interest to the average reader of T}ts Cooo, than the longer and more formal general' articles. The seasoh's experiences should have provided each one of us with information worth contributing in this way. PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED A Hso ovlx Bs or Cooxoo l By WILLIAM LUTLEY SCLATER ] M. A. [etc. two lines]. I With seventeen Plates and a Map l Witherby & Co. 1326 High Holborn London I 1912 ! 8vo, pp. i-xxiv. 1-576 (Cloth, $5.00 net).