3OO Correspondence. Muly 



Osprey, The, III, Nos. 8-9, April, May, 1899. 



Ottawa Naturalist, XIII, Nos. 1-3, April-June, 1899. 



Our Animal Friends, XXVI, Nos. S-10, April-June, 1S99. 



Proceedings of the Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1899, Part 1, Jan.- 

 March. 



Proceedings of the California Acad, of Science, 3d Ser. , Zool. I, 

 No. 12, May, 1S99. 



Proceedings and Transactions of Nova Scotia Inst, of Science, IX, 

 pt. 4, Dec. 189S. 



Science (2), Nos. 222-234, 1S99. 



Shooting and Fishing, XXIV, Nos. 24-26, XXV, Nos. 1-10, 1899. 



Transactions of the Wisconsin Acad. Sci., Arts, and Letters, XII, 

 Part 1, 189S. 



Wilson Bulletin, Nos. 25, 26, March and May, 1899. 



Wombat, The, IV, No. 2, Feb. 1S99. 



Zoologist, The (4), Nos. 28-30, April-June, 1S99. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Spelling of Names. 



Editors of 'The Auk': — 



Dear Sirs: — In the April number of your excellent journal, our 

 esteemed friend, Mr. William Brewster, has acknowledged — what I am 

 sure no one would ever have dreamed charging him with — that he has 

 experienced a difficulty in spelling correctly even so insignificant a word 

 as a proper name, and in his strait he appeals to me for assistance. Now, 

 although I am indicated, together with Mr. Brewster's fellow-committee- 

 man, Dr. Coues, and the revered president of an ancient University, as one 

 of those who does not know how to spell his own name, which is a very 

 sad state of affairs indeed, yet I will try to explain why "these things 

 are thus." It is possible Mr. Brewster's former intimate knowledge of 

 philology (which he tells us, and he alone would say that, is now reduced 

 to "simple ignorance") has been obliterated by the peculiar atmosphere 

 which has enveloped him at the meetings of a prominent A. O. U. Com- 

 mittee, of which he is one of the most highly respected members. If he 

 will permit me, I would recall to Mr. Brewster's memory the fact that in 

 philological science a word is spelled according to the root or source 

 from which it is derived, and it not infrequently happens that several 

 words, although very differently spelled, have the same meaning. To 

 give an instance of this effect of derivation, Brewster is always spelled 



