May, 1914 EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 147 THE CONDOR A MeSezine of Weetern OrnitholoSy Published Bi-Monthly by the Cooper Omith?olo$ical Club J. GRINNELL. Editor. Berkeley. C,llfornle HARRY S. SWARTH. Asseel.re Editor J. EI/GENE?LAW t Business M&naflers W* LEE CHAMBEKS Heftyweed, Califenda: Published Blay 15, 1914 SUDSCIklPTION R2kTES One Dollar and Fifty Cents per Year in the United States, Canada, Mexico and U.S. Colonies, payable in advance Thifiy Cen? 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. 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. Me, nuscrlpts for publication. and Books and P?pers for review. should be sent to the l?ditor. Advefilslng Rates on application. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS The latest etymological authority, Web- ster's New International Dictionary (O. & C. Merlam Co., 1913, page 1814) defines the word resident as follows: "Dwelling, or hav, ing an abode, in a place for a continued length of time; . opposed to nonres-
iclent; . . . 2.' (?f birds, not migratory;
nonmigratory." In essence the word means sit, or stay, and is allied to seclentary, as op: posed to migratory. Birds are either resi- clent or migratory; if they migrate they can not be resident; hence such an incongruity as winter resiclent is impossible! We ad- mit that the term summer visitant, for a migratory species breecling in a given local- ity, is open to criticism; but summer resi- clent is worse. Perhaps some one can sug- gest a correct term for this seasonal cate- gory, which will be acceptable to all of us. See Dawson, antea, page 119. V/by do not the terms' transient or sporadic visitant serve in all cases where the birds are not regular winter or summer visitants? The one thing that pe. rturbs the Editor more than any others of his worries is re- ceipt of a manuscript from some well-mean- ing contributor, the appearance of which corroborates his accompanying note that he has "dashed down a few lines for our maga- zine", or that he "submits some space-filler" which can be "consigned to the waste-basket if not needed". It 'is presumed that THE CONDOR prints only matter of scientific' value or of popularly educative function. The magazine's pages had better be left blank than devoted to mere "space-filler", as such. The Editor welcomes and solicits well-considered, well-composed articles, whether of ten lines' or ten pages. The Cooper Club's membership, as shown in the roster concluding the present issue of THE CONDOR, numbered on April 1st, 1914, six honorary and 433 actlye members. Dr. Barton W. Evermann, for many years connected with the Bureau of Fisheries at Washington, has been appointed Director of the Museum of the California Academy of Sciences. Dr. Evermann is a Cooper Club member, and his name is associated with the development of ornithology in Califor- nia during the early 80's. From 1881 to 1886 seven articles were' contributed from his pen to the Ornithologist ancl Oologist and to The Auk. Mr. J. Eugene Law spent three weeks in the latter part of February and early March in the vicinity of Silver City, New Mexico, where a large part of his time was occu- pied in bird study and collecting. CONVENTION OF AMERICAN ORNITHOLO- GISTS IN SAN FRANCISCO IN 1915 It will be good news to members of the Cooper Ornithological Club that at the an- nual meeting of the American Ornitholo- gists' Union, held last. month in Washing- ton, it was decided to hold the next annual meeting in San Francisco in 'May, 1915. As to how many members will respond it is, of course, impossible at this early date to state, but that a considerable number wfll avail themselves of the opportunity to at- tend the convention, and the Panama Paci- fic Exposition also, is reasonably certain. To a large degree it is up to the Cooper Ornithological Club to make the visit of our friends from the eastern states as pleasant and interesting as possible. One way to do this will be to hold a meeting jointly with the A. O. U., and to make it a record one. Many will remember the special joint meet- ing held here in 1903, which was such a suc- cess, and during which some friendships were made that have kept green ever since. Undoubtedly many members of the South-' ern Division of the C. O. C. can arrange to come up here to see the exposition at the time of holding this joint meeting. Every one must get to work and boost this propo- sition affd make it a memorable success, for it is the chance of our young lives! Few of our eastern cousins realize the great diversity in climatic, and hence in faunal and floral, conditions in California, and the great changes thereby brought about in our bird-life within comparatively short distances. We should plan so as to make this phase of our avifaunal conditions on the Pacific Coast of especial interest to our visitors. We must show them that