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 242 THE CONDOR Vol. XVI THE CONDOR A lvlagazine of Western Ornithologr Published Bi.blonthly by the Cooper Ornitholo$1cal Club J. GRINNELL, Editor, Berkeley, California HARRY S. SWARTH, Asseci&te Editor J EVGENE LAW . LEE CHAMBEIS ' Business Menafers Hollywood, California: Published Sept. 15, 1914 SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Dollar and filty Cents per Year in the United States, Canada, Mexico and U.S. Colonies, payable in advance Thirty Cents the single copy. One Dollar and Seventy-five Cents per Year in all other countries in the International Postal Union. COOPERCLUBDUES Two Dollars per: year for members residing in the United States. Two Dollars and Twenty-five Cents in all other countries. Claims for missing or imperfect numbers should be made within thirty days of date of issue. Subscriptions and Exchanges should be sent to the Business Manager. Mu. nuscrlpts for publlc&tlon. and Books and Papers for rview. should be sent to the Editor. Advertlsln[ Rates on application. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS The proposition to expand the scope of THE CONDOR, as set forth in our last issue, aroused more interest than we had ex- pected it to do. The straw vote has been responded to at a lively rate, and, as it stood on September 1, is two to one in favor of expansion. However, the tone of expres- sion from the majority voters has been va- ryingly submissive, permissive or mildly approbatory, while that from the minority comes with vigor, rebuff and even threat of subsequent dlre calamity! We had no tion of disrupting our present constituency, even ,if assured of increment membership to more than offset such defection. There- fore, though regretfully, we hasten to cover with our little scheme, and hereby declare that its consideration in relation to THE COnDOE will be given no further thought by the present Editor. So let our magazine continue on its leathered career unblem- ished with glint of fur or scales! The day has come when the collector must take special pains to Justify himself in the eyes of the inereasingiy many who are not inclined to countenance bird-de- struction for any purpose whatsoever. What- ever the merits in this extreme attitude, collectors have the situation to face. Un- doubtedly the "scientific specimen" argu- ment is the strcngest to be offered. In this connection it does look as though the col- lector might make more exhaustive use of the birds he kills. To save a well made skin, with accurate color notes, measure- ments, etc., is good. To save also the stom- ach, for economic record, is so much more use made of the bird. One long step still farther is to save the skeleton, or whatever portion of it remains when the skin is made up. And this need not now, with a knowledge of lately discovered methods, be the disagreeable, time-consuming task it once was. We would refer the collector to Mr. Holden's valuable article in the present issue, not only for an explanation of the simple processes involved, but for a state- ment of the urgent scientific need for pre- serving skeletons of birds. PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED THE BIlmS ON BUENA VISTA I3K.E, SOUTH- ERN CALIFORNIA. By WI. SHORE BAILY. (Bird Notes, n s., v, Feb., 1914, pp. 51-57, 2 half-tone ills.; icL, Mar., 1914, pp. 79-83, 1 half-tone ill.) The attention of the reviewer was called to the article here commented upon through Mr. Stone's exhaustive and valuable current index to "Recent Literature" in The Auk (vol. 31, July, 1914, p. 427). The reader in- fers with probable correctness that an Eng- lish travelling sportsman is here relating some of his experiences abroad, and has dashed down his stcry with little or no re- gard for accuracy of form. Severe criticism is deserved on the score of nomenclature alone, for neither the author, nor the editor of Bird Notes, has apparently taken the least pains to secure correct determinations. The bird names employed almost through- out the article seem to be taken directly from European literature, just as if Califor- nia birds had as yet secured no recognition in ornithology. Even so, there are inexcus- able blunders in regard to relationships. The nature of the case will be understood from the following selections. "As the sun rose, revealing my presence in the shadow of land, flocks of-Gulls took wing, principally Herring, and Black-backed (identical with our English birds)"; "a few Black-winged Stilts ( Himantopus candidus ) allowed me to get very close"; "Moorhens, mostly in pairs, beat a leisurely retreat"; "a pair of Greenshanks were feeding on a near by mud-bank"; "Bronze Ibis"; "a large flock of small waders". . . "proved to be Curlew-Sandpipers (Tringa subar- quata), a little bird I had previously met with in the Isle of Man"; a "mixed flock of Curlew and Whimbrel". . . included "the Eskimo species (Numenius boreaZis), but the Whimbrels were similar to our Euro- pean birds"; "Haxrler"; "Iceland Falcon"; etc. We are thus presented with about the sort of product a California tourist in Eng-