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 230 THE CONDOR Vol. XV THE CONDOIk A Maazlne of '*reste rn Ornithology rubllshed Bi-Monthly b Cooper Omltholoical Club J, GRINNELL, Edi*or, Berkeley, Cllforni& HARRY S. SWARTH, Asseci*e Edi*or J EVGENE LAW _ _ . LEE CHAMBERS Hollywood, California: Published December 10,1913 SU]SCIklPTION RATE One Dollar and Fifty Cents per Tear in the United States, Canada, Me_xico and U.S. Colonies, payable in advance Thirty Cents the single copy. One Dollar and Seventy-five Cents per Tear in all other countries in the International Postal Union. Claims for missing or imperfect numbers should be made within thirty days of date of issue. Subscriptions and Exchanffes should be sent to the Business Manager. Mu. nuscrlpts for publication. and Books and '&pers for review, should be sent to the Editor. Adverisinf Rates on application. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS At the recent congress of the American Ornithologists' Union, in New York City, No- vember 11, distinction was-conferred upon three Pacilic Coast men. Joseph Mailliard was elected Fellow, and W. Lee Chambers and George Willett were elected Members. Mr. Mailliard's election is the first to the class of Fellows, as far as this coast is concerned, since that of Walter K. Fisher in 1905. Mr. L. E. Wyman, recently of Nampa, Id. ahp, has removed to Los Angeles, where he is m charge of the work of excavating the fossils at the Rancho La Brea, for the Museum of History, Science and Art. The Cooper Ornithological Club has been honored through the appointment of Mr. George Willett of Los Angeles as Inspector under the new Federal Migratory Bird Law. In explanation it may be said that the plan worked out by Dr. T. S. Palmer and those others of the Department of Agriculture in whose hands rests the administration of the law, involves the division of the United States into thirteen districts, each to be in charge of an experienced inspector and a force oi about 25 picked men selected by the stat game commissions. The California Distri. ct, of which Mr. Willett is to be Inspector, in- cludes also Nevada and Arizona. The task of putting the new law into effect concerns every State in the Union and is one of the greatest ever attempted in the history of game protection. We congratulate Mr. Willett upon his appointment, and wish him all success in his new office. The friends of Mr. Joseph Dixon are much concerned over his failure to return home this fall from his Alaskan trip, as expected. It is now practically certain that lhe Polar Bear, the vessel in which Dixon's party was exploring the arctic coasts of Siberia and Alaska, has been frozen in for the winter somewhere east of Point Barrow. No word is likely [o be received from the party before the ice breaks up, next July or August. Dixon will certainly have abundant opportunity to study and collect whatever animal life is available around his winter quarters. It is to be earnestly hoped that no mishap or extraordin- ary hardship overtakes his party, and that he returns to us in due time with sufficiently vain- able results to compensate.him for his long and involuntary isolation. Attention of all Cooper Club members is hereby directed to our Business Managers' an- nouncements on inside front cover of tins issue. Material and prompt response to their requests is recommended as being in line with the continued success and activity of the Club and its publications. The Biological Survey announces with deep regret the death of Major John Fletcher Lacey, a member of the Advisory Board u, Migratory Birds. According to press ms- patches, Major Lacey's death, due to apoplexy, occurred on September 29, 1913, at the age of 72, at his home in Oskaloosa, Iowa. During the sixteen years in which he serv- ed 'in Congress, 1889 to 1891, and 1893 to 1907, he was connected with most of the meas- ures relatihg to conservation. One of the earliest statutes which he assisted in passing was the Act of May 7, 1894, protecting birds and animals in the Yellowstone National Park. As author of various bills protecting game he early became known as the "Father of Federal Game Legslano . Following are some of the more important measures for the protection of, wild life which he introduced and which are now on the statute books: The act which bears his name, regulating inter- state commerce in game, 1900; the first Alaska game law, 1902; the act creating the Wichita Game Refuge in Oklahoma, 1905; the appro- priation for the herd of buffalo in the Yel- lowstone Park, 1905; the National Monuments Act, 1906; the law protecting birds on bird reservations, 1905. During his chairmanship of the House Com- mittee on Public Lands in 1904, he became deeply interested in the first bill for the pro. tection of migratory birds, introduced by Hon. George Shiras. Later, after his retirement from Congress, he devoted considerable study to this question and proposed certain amend- ments in what is sometimes known as the Lacey Modification of the Migratory Bird Bill, introduced in the House by Hon. John W. Weeks on May 2., 1909. His keen interest in game legislation con- tinued after his retirement to private life and on at least two occasions he was aqtively in- terested in the passage of important meas- ures. Early in 1909 he appeared ,be, fore the Committee which codified me penal laws and