Page:Condor18(1).djvu/37

36 THE CONDOR VoL XVIII THE CONDOR A l?fagazine of Western Ornitholog:z Published Bi-Montbly by the Cooper Ornithological Club J. GRINNELL, Edito? HARRY S. SWARTH. Associate Editor J. EUGENE LAW } Bus/hess Managers W. LEE CHAMBERS Hollywood, California: Publishod Jan. 15, 1916 SUDSCRIPTION RATES One Dollar and Fifty Cents per Year in the United States, payable jn 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. Manuscripts for publication, and Books arid Papers for Review, should be sent to the Editor, J. Grinnell, Museum of Vertebrate ZooloKy, University of Cali- fornla, 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. Advertlsin? Rates on application to the Business Manager. Address W. Lee Chambers, Business Manager, l?asle Rock, Los Angeles County, California. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS Contributors to Tits, CONDOR will doubtless wish to avail themselves of any opportunity of improving their literary out-put. To this end we would recommend securing and studFinO a pamphlet recently issued from the University of California Press under the experienced authorship of the Manager, Mr. Albert H. Allen. The title, "Suggestions on the preparation of manuscript", indicates the scope. As long as surplus copies are in stock each applicant may secure one by sending a two-cent stamp with his request to the University of California Press, Berke- ley. During a recent trip through southern California, the Editor visited the home of Mr..W. Lee Chambers, one of the Business Managers of the Cooper Club. Of great interest there, was the admirable system with which the Club's property and finan- cial affairs are handled. The greatest of scrupulosity is observed in accounting for every item. Back numbers of CONDORS and AVIFAUNAS, amounting to tons, are housed in an isolated fire-proof building, the re- serve supply carefully wrapped so as to es- cape injury from dust and dampness, and everything card-indexed to the very last copy. An exact accounting of Club funds, as derived from dues and subscriptions, can be ascertained from the card files any day in the year. The attention of both Mr. Law and Mr. Chambers is now concentrated upon ways and means to expand the publication- capacity of the Club, in other words, upon enlargement of THE CONDOR and more fre- quent additions to the AVIFAUNA series. During the greater part of the past year the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoolo- gy has been conducting field work upon the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians of the Yosemite region of the Sierra Nevada. The objects of this work have been two- fold: First, to make a detailed and com- parative faunal study along a definite cross- section of the central Sierra Nevada from the San Joaquin Valley base to Mono Lake; and second, to provide material to be used as basis of a semi-popular account of the vertebrate natural history of Yosemite Na- tional Park. Under the first head, maps, photographs and large collections of .specimens have been assembled, from which to determine the nature and extent of the life zones of the region, and to define the systematic status and inter-relationships of the various constituent vertebrate species. Under the second head, much information has been gathered concerning the life-his- tories of the conspicuous species, particu- larly birds and mammals, and the relations of these to Park conditions from the stand- point of the nature-loving visitor. The prin- ciple is evident, that the animal life of any Federal Reservation is an important asset, to be considered as such along with the forests, lakes, water-falls and sculpture d cliffs. The birds and mammals should be conserved in maximum numbers, as valua- ble elements going to make up the sum- total of attractiveness. The Yosemite National Park is visited by thousands of people each year, a certain portion of whom would find, in an appro- priately compiled account of its natural his- tory, a guide and incentive to pleasurable observation of its animal life. An increas- ing number of people are turning their at- tention at vacation time toward out-of-door bird-study. In fact there is a distinct tend- ency to be observed among educated classes, to include a first-hand knowledge of the higher vertebrates among those accom- plishments the possession of which denotes intellectual refinement. To meet and promote the above tendency, and to emphasize an important National Park asset, were the considerations which prompted the undertaking here outlined. The Yosemite Natural History Survey, to- gether with compilation of results, is being