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 ii2 THE CONDOR VoL. IX THE CONDOB, An Illustrated Magazine of Western Ornithologr Published Bi-Monthly by tbe Cooper Ornltholo#i- cal Club of Californie JOSEPH GRINNELL, Editor, Psden H. T. CLIFTON, Business Manager, Box 404, Pasadena WILLIAM L. FINLEY } JOSEPH MAILLIAR. D Associate Editors Pasadena, California: Published June 15, 1907J SUDSCKIPTION RATES One Dollar and Fifty Cents per Year in the United States, Mexico, and U. 5. 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. Claims for missing or imperfect humhers should be made within thirty days of date of issue. Subscriptions should be sent to the Business Manager. M,nuscripts and Exchanges should be sent to the JEdttor. Advertising Rates on application. EDITORIALS In the vote to establish certain usages in our magazine, twenty-three Cooper Club members responded, with the following resttits: By a vote of IS to 5 we are not to use the metric system ea:clusively in T: CONDOR. We wiI1 use whichever system authors of articles prefer. A wise suggestion is that in technical accounts, the metric system be em- ployed, but English equivalents given in paren- thesis. No one would then be inconvenienced. By a vote of i6 to 7 we are to continue to use the simplified spelling in its authoritatively recommended moderation. By a vote of x2 to H we are hereafter to begin with capitals all vernacular names of birds in the body o[ sentences, as well as in lists. This is the only change from our pre- vious custom. Mr. Dawson's presentation of this subject in our last issue, leaves us con- vinced of the correctness of his views, and we are now glad the vote decided the matter in that way. We want to make Tn CONDOR an attrac- tive magazine in general typographical make-up, as well as from a scientific and pop- ular standpoint, and to that end we will wel- come relevant suggestions from anyone. The present editor is sorry he cannot see his way to adding a juvenile or school department to this magazine as has been urged from sev- eral directions on this coast. We really do not see the expediency of such a move. Bird- Lore is filling the educational field admirably; why should we compete with it? And, too, we do not believe it would meet the approval of anywhere near a majority of Cooper Club mem- bers. It has been our conviction that we should conduct a medium for the publication of seri- ous ornithology, not necessarily technical, however. We believe nothing at all should be published anywhere, that is so obscurely couched as to be incomprehensible to the average reader. Tlxe most important fact and profound philosophy should be stated "popu- larly," in the sense of being clearly worded, with an elimination of unusual terms. On the other hand we abhor that style of article in which one must search for the germ of information within a frothy mass of inconse- quential chatter, as is the characteristic of so much of our"Nature"literature nowadays. We do not believe our mission to be to furnish "light reading" for people who are not inter- ested enough to care for real bird-study. The Washington Audubon Society was or- ganized at Seattle, the 2oth of April, with W. Leon Dawson as President, and H. Rief as Secretary. Contrary to our contention in our last No- vember issue that the "House Finch" is uni- versally called "Linnet," Mr. E. R. Warren tells us that in Colorado 99 out of every xoo persons familiar with "House Finches" never heard of "Linnets"! However, we feel quite sure that the latter name prevails over the largest part of the bird's range. Walter P. Taylor is spending the summer in natural history field-work along the Colorado River near Searchlight. COMMUNICATIONS BAIRD'S OR BAIRD? Editors of T CONDOR: It will be small compliment to the reader, I fear, if I confess in advance that I have not freshly reviewed the discussion upon the mooted point of the possessive or adectival form of bird names. But perhaps I shall suc- ceed in stating the case freshly, if for no other reason than that no account has been taken of the excellent matter already published. The trouble is that contention has been made for the use of pronominal adjective or possess- ive, whereas, in truth, both have proper uses. And this failure to grasp the validity of both forms is due chiefly to a failure in distinguish- ing between a bird as an individual and a bird as a species or a member of a species. Take for example Cenlrony: bairdii (Aud.), called since its dedication in I843 Baird's Spar- row. Now the contention is made that Spencer F. Baird--quite apart from the fact that he is dead--had no possessive right in certain spar- rows flocking and summering in Dakota, and that, therefore, it is incorrect to speak of