Page:Condor18(3).djvu/41

May, 19i6' EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 131 THE' CONDOR Western Ornithology' Published Bi-MontMy by tbe Cooper Ornithological Club J. GRINNELL, Editor HARRY S. SWARTH, Associate Editor ]. EUGENE LAW ? Business Mnnogers W. LEE CHAMBERS Hollywood, California: Publishod Juno $, 1916 SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Dollar nnd Fifty Cents per Year in the United States, 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 ?nd Twenty*five Cents in all other countries. Manuscripts for publication, and Books and Papers for Review, should be sent to the Editor, J. Grinnell, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of Cali- fornia, Berkeley, California. Claims for missing or imperfect numbers should be made of the Business Manager, as addressed below, within thirty days of date of issue. Cooper Club Dues, Subscriptions to The Condor, and Exchanges, should be sent to the Business Manager. Advertising Rates on application to the Business Address W. Lee Chambers, Business Manager, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles County, California. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS At the regular meeting of the Northern Division of the Cooper Ornlthologicai Club held April 20, 1916, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: With the death of Professor Wells W. Cooke at Washington on March 30th, Amer- ica has lost a working ornithologist of fore- most rank. His career has been notable for consistent adherence to one line of in- vestigation-the distribution and migra- tion of North American birds. His achieve- ments in this field comprised the diligent collection and classification of vast num- bers of facts, and the deliberate and cau- tious deduction of generalizations from these. The wide recognition of the results o? Professor Cooke's work as thoroughly sound, attests to his faithfulness to detail. We can only deplore with sadness the pre- mature termination of a career of further great promise as well as creditable accom- plishment. In view of the above considerations let it be resolved that we, the members of the Cooper Ornithological Club, hereby extend to the family and intimate friends of the late Professor Cooke our sincerest sympa- thies. Mr. Harry S. Swarth, who for the past three years has served as Assistant Director and Zoologist at the Los Angeles Museum o? History, Science and Art, has rejoined the staff of the California Museum of Verte- brate Zoology, with which institution he had previously been affiliated from 1908 to 1913. Mr. Swarth resumes the duties of Curator of Birds, which duties involve not only the care of the extensive collections of birds in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, but also enquiry into the systematic status of the lesser worked western bird groups. We have frequent occasion to recommend titles of ornithological books or papers such as can be considered representative of the highest types of ornithology for the use of serious beginning students. It may be of interest to ca?l attention here to some of these examples--not that we believe our judgment final but that the attention of others may thus be called to the matter, and possibly further or different decisions elicited. Among books which may be properly classed as literature we can think of none pertaining to western North America that has appealed to us more strongly than the late Bradford Torrey's "Field Days in California" (1913). As we know through personal contact, Mr. Torrey was an especially accurate observer, and, gifted as he was with a ready pen and a large knowl- edge of literature, he was able to make record of his findings in a most attractive and at the same time authoritative way. As a high type of ornithological research based on field exploration we would hark back a good many years to Stejneger's "Re- sults of Ornithological Explorations in the Commander Islands and Kamtschatka" (1885). In this report we find set forth, not only lists of specimens secured with critical notes on species characters and loca? dis- tribution, but also a considerable proportion of sound philosophical comment. Particu- larly noteworthy, and acceptable today in practically every detail, are Stejneger's generalizations in regard to migration in northwestern North America and in Asia. A careful re-examination of this paper has rewarded us with a number of new ideas, or clarified notions we already held. In the increasingly important field cf geographical distribution nothing has yet appeared to supplant in point of interest and thoroughness C. Hart Merriam's "Results of a Biological Survey of Mount Shasta" (1899). There are here marshalled in convincing array data supporting the life-zone concept together with various dependent considera- tions having to do with distribution in