EDITORIAL 127 
the present summer will be spent on Point Pelee, Ontario, in fur- 
ther studies of the southward movements of the birds in that es- 
pecially favored place. Ten students will participate in the work, 
and it is hoped that they may be so distributed as to trace the 
direction of large flights, if any such occur. It is hardly neces- 
sary to state that these late summer classes are the direct result 
of the attention which has been given to the study of birds at 
Oberlin College since 1895, when the first class for bird study 
was organized in any American college. Now that the birds are 
receiving some attention, at least, in the public schools and in 
many colleges, we may confidently expect that there will be 
many young men and women with sufficient knowledge of and in- 
terest in birds to make many other special summer investigations 
possible. There is great need for studies of this special nature 
at all times of year, and we expect to see something of this kind 
done in the not distant future, especially for the spring move- 
ments in especially favorable places. Is it too much to expect 
that ere long the present practice of so many people of rushing 
off to some popular or fashionable summer resort, from which they 
are more than likely to return more worn than when they went, 
will give place to plans for spending that time in some healthful 
place where birds and other creatures may be studied and enjoyed, 
and where some real rest and recreation may be gained along 
with keen pleasure in delving into the secrets of this wonderful 
world all about us? 
The first article in the May-June number of “The Condor,” 
“The Literary and Other Principles in Ornithological Writing,” 
by Milton S. Ray, is, to our mind, well chosen and well done. Mr. 
Ray’s plea for readableness in ornithological writings, and his 
protest that simply because it is readable it is therefore not scien- 
tific, ought to be given honest consideration. It is too true of 
scientific writings in general that they are put into such unneces- 
sarily technical language, often, that they become wholly unavail- 
able to any but the initiated in that particular branch of science. 
This ought not so to be. The world is entitled to the results of 
investigations for which it is always paying in the setting apart 
of such investigators for their special work and thus removing 
them from the great army who are carrying the burden of the 
“day's work.” We earnestly second Mr. Ray’s plea for “set ver- 
nacular names based on the true relationships of birds.’’ There 
is really no sound reason why this cannot be done. If it be ob- 
jected that by so doing much of the sentiment of bird study would 
be sacrificed, we reply that this would be true of only those per- 
