THE OOLOGIST 



11 



wilds. Mr. Hoyt gathered a large 

 collection of rare Oological specimens, 

 which he donated to the museum 

 there. 



Editor. 



That Mare's Nest 

 My Dear Mr. Barnes: 



Inasmuch as you have misquoted 

 me on page 166 of the December 

 "Oologist" 1 ask that you be good 

 enough to publish this letter in your 

 next issue. I know, of course, tliat the 

 misquotation was entirely unintention- 

 al, but it puts me in a wrong light 

 with those who have not read my 

 original statement in "The Auk." I 

 did not say that it was because Dr. 

 Oberholser used technical names that 

 a number of them were meaningless 

 to the general reader but because he 

 used technical names that were dif- 

 ferent from those of the A. O. U. 

 Check-List the only reference volume 

 that the majority of students have 

 for consultation. 



Technical names in scientific work 

 are not an absolute necessity, because 

 in the large majority of cases ani- 

 mals and plants do not have any 

 English names. This is the case in 

 the greater number of insects, and 

 in other groups of lower animals, and 

 also in the case of birds when foreign 

 countries are concerned. In your 

 reference to "The Auk" you say that 

 177 species were referred to by their 

 Latin names only, in the October 

 number, these are almost exclusively 

 birds of South America and other 

 foreign countries which have no Eng- 

 lish names — many of them no names 

 at all except the Latin ones, and 

 there was no alternative. 



I entirely agree with you as to the 

 English names in the case of our 

 native birds and 1 publish them in 

 every instance in "The Auk," except 

 in purely technical discussion in 



which only technical students are in- 

 terested. In a publication like "The 

 Auk," intended for both classes of 

 readers, both kinds of names have to 

 be used. 



I have, however, long wondered 

 why, in a popular magazine like "The 

 Oologist," you continued to publish 

 scientific names when all the species 

 mentioned have well known English 

 names. I thought upon looking at the 

 December issue that you had adopted 

 this policy, but 1 see that one tech- 

 nical name survives on page 156, but 

 doubtless this was an oversight. If 

 this policy were made permanent I 

 am sure it would meet with the ap- 

 proval of all your readers. 

 Sincerely yours, 



Witmer Stone. 



Surely there was no intention of 

 "misquoting" Dr. Stone, for whom 

 we have the highest respect. How- 

 ever, we construed the "Auk" article 

 as we understood it, and as we be- 

 lieve the average layman would have 

 read it. The reason that we still use 

 an occasional scientific name in The 

 Oologist is, that we occasionally find 

 one that remains the same long 

 enough for us to get it to the printer, 

 and from the printer to our readers 

 before it is changed by the big bird 

 doctors. But in doing so we realize 

 that we take long chances of the 

 change being made while The Oologist 

 is in process of making. Why not 

 have a little common sense in the mat- 

 ter of the eternal change of names? 

 The Editor. 



A Rare Capture 



Tlie last week in November a 

 farmer living in the vicinity of 

 Burning Springs, W. Va., captured a 

 live young Swan, evidently a bird of 

 the present year which had strayed 

 from the flock on the way soutli. Our 



