I I A Correspondence. [January 



fectly white tail, with some white about the head ; on making a post mortem 

 I discovered through a rent in the intestines a tape-worm about 20 feet in 

 length. Did not wonder then that his head was gray. A few years after a 

 partially white Red-winged Blackbird {Agelceus phceniceus) was taken, 

 which also contained two or three taenia ; next a partial albino Mallard; 

 then a Robin (Turdus migratorius) with a white head and mottled back 

 and breast. All were mounted, and *are now in my collection. Each of 

 these had two or more tape-worms in their intestines. I am aware that 

 birds, especially some species, are particularly obnoxious to tape-worms, 

 and the above may have been merely coincidences ; still it has been 

 observed sufficiently often to make the fact suspicious as a cause of 

 albinism. — G. A. M'Callum, Dunnville, Ont. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



{Correspondents are requested to write briefly and to the point. No attention will 

 be paid to anonymous commufiications .] 



To the Editors of The Auk : — 



Sirs: I see by the last number of 'The Auk' that the Committee on 

 Nomenclature is undecided whether to adopt the name 'Junco' or 'Snow- 

 bird' as the vernacular name of Junco kiemalis. The bird in question is 

 here, and in many other parts of its range, not a 'Snowbird' at all, as 

 it almost invariably leaves for the South before there is any snow, and 

 does not return till the ground is completely clear. I think this should 

 be sufficient to decide the question in favor of 'Junco,' as in my opinion 

 a bird should always bear a name which is applicable to it in every part 

 of its range. 



The same argument applies with equal or still greater force to the name 

 'Winter Wren.' Anorthura troglodytes hyemalis spends the summer in 

 the hills near here, but is never found here during the cold weather; and 

 people here have frequently remarked on the absurdity of our having to 

 call an essentially summer bird the 'Winter Wren.' It may be urged 

 that we have no choice in the matter, as there is no other name for the 

 bird; but why cannot some descriptive name, such as 'Short-tailed Wren,' 

 be invented. Many will doubtless say that the old name is too well 

 established to admit of its removal ; but the Committee has, I under- 

 stand, in some instances made changes even more radical than this, and 

 on no stronger ground; and it does seem a pity, when a thorough and 

 final revision of the nomenclature is in progress, to allow a misnomer 

 like 'Winter Wren' to stand. For surely a name must be considered a 

 misnomer which is inapplicable in a bird's summer home — the place 

 where by far the most important part of its life's drama is enacted. 



Ottawa, November 19, 1884. W. L. Scott 



