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MAR. I903 [ THE CONDOR 57 pected to be done will be published in the May CONDOR. HOWARD ROBERTSON, 49 Courthouse, Los Angeles. An Open Letter. ALTONA FARM, [?ONGMONT, COLO., FEB'Y tO, t903. MY DEAR FISHER: I am so enthused over the last issue of THE CONDOR that I must write you a few lines, to try and spread my enthusiasm. Barring the unfortunate necessity of the "Memoriam" to our dear friend Barlow, the issue was certainly a "cmcker-jack"--in fact the culmination of many good numbers which came last year. The extra good paper you are using in the make-up may be a trifle expensive now, but will prove cheap in the long run. It will stand the test of time, binding and usage much better than some journals of reference now twenty years old which were not published with the same foresight. Periodically someone gets off a howl about the "Good old days," and "the O. and O.," "What it used to be" and "Why cannot we have something as good now." But THE CONDOR of today is a much better paper than the "O. and O." ever was. We must not for- get that we are twenty years older than we were in those "Good old days," and possibly with our advanced information we would not now enioy the "O. and O." as we did then. It certainly was delightful and amusing reading for us: the narratives of those "big sycamore climbs" and "stick in the mud" collecting trips. But as a magazine for reference, what is its price now compared to back copies of "The Nidologist" and the "Bulletin of the Cooper Club?" The "O. and 0." did hold the old crowd together. That was a good feature and that is what our East,ern friends realize is lacking in the journals now in their hands.' Lattiu's little sheet is filling its place and so is the "Auk." "Bird-Lore" and the "Osprey" are trying to do justice to the medium, with the result that the collectors are divided be- tween the two and are not in unison. Your country out on the coast, to-day, has the best collectors, the best union, and consequently the best journal. Last fall I experienced delightful visits with many of the "Old Boys," Jackson, Parker, Nor- ' ris, Crandall and several others; men whom you will remember assisted in the make-up of the "O. and 0.," and I talked CONDOR to them pretty strong. They all have great admiration for the workers out on the coast, and for your publication. They regret by contrast, their own lack of union and the decrease of good field work in the East. Since you publish as"A Magazine of XVestern Ornithology" do you care to open your columns to the use of Eastern subscribers? Oology was primary with us in the "Old Days," now it is secondary (to Ornithology). That fact has worked the change in the char- acter of our reading matter, and those old collectors, who have not put the scalpel in a more convenient place on their table than the drill and blow-pipe, are behind the times and thereby deplore the loss of the old "0. and O." At the same time I find they value a set of eggs coming from a man with a good "skin re- cord" like Anthony, McGregor or Grinnell about six times as much as they do a set from some of "Lattin's boys." Fisher! you should have seen the look of satisfaction on Crandall's face as he pointed out to me certain sets of eggs, here and there, with the remark that "they were some of Chester Barlow's collect- ing." Cordially yours, FRED M. DILLE. Mr. Dille's pertinent inquiry in his "open letter" as to whether THE CONDOR intends to adhere strictly to the policy enunciated in its title "A MagaZine of Western Ornithology" may be answered in the affirmative. While we are always glad to publish notes and papers of a tffeneral nature from our eastern friends, those articles which are faunal or biograph- ical must be distinctly western, or in other words must fall within our "geographical limits." When the present editor was asso- ciated with the late Chester Barlow, it was decided that these limits should arbitrarily extend from the west coast eastward to include Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. Outside of the United States our scope is somewhat elastic, and comprises the Pacific Coast generally, and islands of the eastern Pacific. The right sort of. bird nmterial is limited, and we do not care to encroach on the rightful territory of eastern ornithological journals. The Cooper Club, too, is a distinctly western organization, and it is believed that to be sue- cessful, the Inore western its magazine the bet- ter. Obituary. THOMAS E. SLEVIN. Thomas E. Slevin died at his home in San Francisco, December 23, 19o2. He was boru January ?o, t87t, in New York City, and came to the Pacific Coast in t878. His love of natural history began when he was a mere boy and exhibited itself in a characteristic way. The first fruits of his ornithological endeavors are still preserved. From his father, the late T. E. Slevin, L. L. D., a founder of the Geo- graphical Society of the Pacific Coast, he in-