36 THE CONDOR Vol. XIII THE CONDOI An Illustrated Iv[agazine of %?re?tern Ornithology- Published Bi-Montbly by the Cooper Ornithol?i?l Club JOSEPH GRINNELL. Editor. Berkeley. Cxlif. J. EUGENE LAW } Business M?agers W. LEE CHAMBEKS HARKY S. SWAKTH ? ROBERT B. ROCKWELL ? Aasooi?te Editors G. WILLETT ? Hollywood, California: Published Jan. 15, 1911 $UD$CI%IPTIONI One Dollar end Fifty Cents per Year in the United States Canada, Mexico and U.S. Colonies, payable in advance Thirty Cents the single copy. One Dollar end Seventy-five Cents per Year 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 Exchanges should be sent to the Business Manager. M&nuscripts for publication. and Books and P&pers for review, should be sent to the Editor. Adverlislng Rotes on application. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS In the vote regarding simplified spelling, 107 Cooper Club member? expressed their opinion distinctly one way or the other. There were 44 votes for the continued use of simplified spell- ing in our magazine and 63 votes against it. Thus the Editor was disappointed iu his cher- ished hope. He has become convinced that people are innately averse to an abrupl change even when admittedly to a considerable degree beneficial in its bearings. Just as with song sparrows anti chipmunks, modifications, in adjustment to changing enviromnent, are matters of slow and gradual transition. As with these animals, too, variations are more extreme and rapid on the frontier of invasion. The species becomes plastic nnder stress of new conditions. The vote in the West alone gives a majority for simplified spelling. W e are informed that Mr. Wilfred H. Osgoot4, with Mr. Stanley G. Jewett as assistant, is about to leave for South America where zoologi- cal field work is to be carried on in the Andes Mountains in Venezuela and Colombia. This expedition is sent out under the auspices of the Field Museum of Natural Itistory, Chicago. The Northern Division of the Cooper Club has settled upon the third Saturday evening of each month as a regular time of meeting. Distant members who happen to visit the San Francisco Bay region should remember this, and also that until further notice meetings are held, in the research room of the Museran of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley. Austin Paul Smith has established himself at Orizaba, Mexico, for a period of field work with the birds of that region. Denver newspapers report that great nnm- hers of wild ducks have died in the Bear River district of Utah. There is apparently some epidemic resembling the roup of chickens, which is afflicting the water fowl to such an extent that gunners are leaving them alone, not tincling it enjoyable to shoot or eat sick birds. Students of California ornithology will be in? terested to know that there are at present 525 species of birds definitely recorded from within the limits of tbe State of California. Of these, 163 are water birds and 362 land birds. We are pleased to announce that Mr. W. L. Dawson has come south with carefidly elabo- rated plans for the preparation of a sumptuous and exhaustive work upon the Birds of Califor- nia. Mr. Dawson brings to his proposed task a nnique equipment. Endowed with excellent taste, and skilled in photography, he is also schooled in business methods aud does his own "managing." He writes with great acceptance anti his knowledge of the scientific framework of his profession is beyond that of most "popu- lar" writers. While he is not a "native son", he is thoroughly imbued with the western spirit; and his experience of fifteen years in the State of Washington gives hint a great leverage in the ready umlerstanding of the birds of California. Moreover, his very ability to look at the local conditions with fresh eyes will be a positive advantage in the exposition of our bird life, when to it is added the experi- ence of older workers who long ago ceased to wontier. A keen eye, a ready pen, a sparkling style, coupled with a conscientious striving for accuracy of statement, anti, above all, a sense of what the public neetIs, make our friend from Washington sing?darly well fitted to lead in an enterprise such as the one contemplated. Mr. Dawson comes frankly asking the help of the members of the Cooper Ornithological Club. ttis task wouhl be difficult of accom- plishment alone. He must, in the nature of the case, be largely depemlent upon the ac- cumulated results of the labor of others, both published anti unpublished. Anti since even this is insufficient, as yet, as we all know, he is especially desirous of enlisting the friendly services of as many other bird students as pos- sible in a five year campaign of cooperative observation. Mr. Dawson will himself spend the best part of the next five years afiehl with his cameras anti a trained assistant, visiting out-of-the-way places, as well as the better known bird-haunts, in quest of material for the new book. In this way he will be able to familiarize himself with the ground so as to edit the work of others intelligently, as well as to make some original contribution to our knowledge of the birds of California. There can be no question of our need for just
