166 



THE OOLOGIST 



lished in the Wilson Journal, XXX No. 

 2 1918 only technical names are used 

 and therefore, "A number of them are 

 meaningless to the general readers." 



When we stop to think that 745 

 members of the A. O. U. are 

 "associates" and people who are com- 

 pelled to make a living in this busi- 

 ness world and have no time to delve 

 into the intricacies and mysteries of 

 super-scientific ornithology and latin- 

 ized bird names, we begin to think 

 that a large percentage of the pages 

 in the publication the support of 

 which these associates are the back 

 bone so far as finances are concerned 

 get little comfort because of the dis- 

 position to adhere strictly to "Only 

 Technical Names." 



The last issue of the Auk is a fair 

 example of this tendency. There are 

 122 birds referred to in that issue by 

 their common name and 177 by their 

 Latin name only. The result would 

 be that at least 50% of these 745 A. 

 O. U. associates would get little or no 

 information from the notes relating 

 to the last half of this total of 299 

 birds. Would it not be better in writ- 

 ing bird notes for publishers to use 

 both the scientific and common name 

 and thereby give everybody a chance 

 to know what was being talked about? 



—Ed. 



It may be of interest for readers of 

 The Oologist to know that on March 

 20th of the present year, 1918, a wild 

 Mallard had completed her set of fif- 

 teen eggs near Tacoma. Here in the 

 northwest the Mallards have their 

 sets completed about three weeks 

 ahead of all the other birds, Horned 

 Owls excepted. 



Yours very truly, 



J. H. Bowles, 

 The Woodstock. 



Frank H. Lattin. 



Friend Eddy who has printed The 

 Oologist ever since it was started, 

 sends us the following good news 

 about its former editor: 



"You will be glad to learn that Dr. 

 Lattin was yesterday elected to the 

 Assembly for the third term by a ma- 

 jority of about 3,000 where the ma- 

 jorities of the other candidates run 

 about half that. And this in spite of 

 the fact that his party organization 

 did everything to defeat him. This 

 district has not returned a man for 

 the third term in a great many years. 

 Almost never, and usually they get 

 but one term before the bosses order 

 up a new man." 



We offer our congratulations to the 

 Hon. F. H. and hope he will continue 

 to succeed in politics. 



—Editor. 



