Page:Condor11(5).djvu/33

Sept., 1909 EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 175 THE CONDOI An Illustrated l?fagazine of ?restern Ornithology Publislxt Bi-Monthly by the Cooper OrnltholnfJi- o&l Club of C&liforni& JOSEPH GRINNELL. Editor. Berkeley. C&I. J. EI/GENE LAW. Business Mnnifer. Hollywood. Cil. W. LEE CHAMBEKS, BusineJs Minilet. S&ntu. Monicu., C?I. WILLIAM L. FINLEY ? Assoclu. te Editors ROBERT B. ROCKWELL Hollywood, California: Publisht $opt. 15, 1909 $UI?$CI%!PTION RATES One Oolhr &nd Fifty Cents per Yo&r in the United States, Mexico, and U.S. Colonies, payable in advat]ce. Thirty Cents the single copy. One Dolhr &nd Seventy-five Cents per Yo&r in all other countries in the International Po?tal Union. Cl&ims for missing or imperfect numbers should be made within thirty days of date of issue. Subscriptions tnd Exelxtn?es should be sent to the Busthess Manager. M,?nuscrlpts for publlc&tlon, ind Books &nd Pu. pers for review should be sent to the l?dztor. Advortlslu? Rites on'application. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS As CONDOR readers make use of the Teu- Year Index, they are sure to run across errors. We hope errors are few, but it is safe to-say there was uever yet publisht a perfect index or catalog. The compiler of our Index, Mr. H. B. Kaeding, proposes to issue an errata-slip, to be mailed to all members aud subscribers. Aud to the end that this may approach completeness, he invites everyone to send to the Editor of this magazine a memorandum of whatever errors have been found,. whether one or mauy. As announced by our Business Manager on inside back cover of present issue, Cooper Club members are entitled to space in THE CONDOR to use in letting their wants be known in the line of exchanging books, photos or specimens. We hope this feature of our magazine will be recognized, and made use of. We assume the privilege of qnotiug the fol- lowing passages of general luterest, from a per- sonal letter (dated August 20) from Dr. Chas. W. Richmond, Acting Curator of Birds in the United States National Museum at Washington: "We are going over the new building next week ! After living for 20 odd years on this gallery, we are about to move into new quarters, where all of our collections can be brought to- gether. Wheu the Division of Birds was moved from the old South Tower (five flights up from the ground) to its preseut quarters, our catalogs had about 95,000 curries, and the collections were all contained in cases on the gallery, cept the large species which were stored in the basement. Since that time we have expanded until the eggs occupied one room (in 70 cases) in a far corner of the "old" Museum building; the Picarian and some other groups filled a room in the north tower of the Smithsonian building; and the waders, water birds, game birds, and other large birds filled the west base-' merit. Our catalog entries now run up into the 212,000's, meaning that we have received over one hundred thotisand specimens in this time. In a few weeks w"e will have all our material together, including about 12,000 duplicates which have been in storage for several years. We are very much elated over the occasion !" And naturally enough. We offer congratula- tions not only to :those immediately connected with the National Museum, but to ornitholo- gists in general. For our national collectio? of birds is by far the most important one, as far as America is concerned, in existence, as it has been used most widely. Its adequate hous- ing has been a desideratum for many years; and now that this is accomplisht, the accessi- bility aud consequent value to bird people at large becomes still greater. A correspondent in another column of this issue describes a publisht Code of Colors which it is urged is an improvement in its method of designation over that employed by Ridgway in his widely used "Nomeuclature of Colors." W'e have just secured a copy of the new work iu question. Its sole poiut of superiority, to our mind, lies in the much greater number of tints and shades presented. But their designa- tiou by number is certainly not an advantage. For a color description would only be compre- hensible in the presence of the Code itself, un- less a. person had had long enough experience with it to remember the color-groups by num- ber. "Lavender" brings to one's mind a more vivid realizatiou of the tiut so called, than "496"! So with russet (? "103"); sea green ( ? "382' '); orange-vermillion ( .... 81"); etc. Of course the uew system could be mastered. And it mig/?t lead to more exact color-defiuition in scientific descriptions. But at the same time it would render these descriptions useless to the multitude of amateurs who, as a rule, would not bother to secure a copy of the key. We still hope for an enlarged nomenclature of colors, after the style of Ridgway's. We have heard a rumor to the effect that Ridgway, himself, is at work on a new and improved ed- ition of his book. This would be ideal. If an American nomenclature does not materialize shortly, we will /?ave to use the Frenchman's "Code des Couleurs"; for the few copies of Ridgway's old "Nomenclature of Colors" ac- cessible are just about worn out; and, as pre- viously hinted, fading is feared. A useful feature of our magazine is the pub- lication from year to year of the "Directory of Members of the Cooper Oruitholo?ical Club ", as in the present issue. Members who see where corrections should be made, should in- form us accordingly, so that our card list can be kept up to date, preparatory for next year's Directory.