contact the Secretary of the NOU: Drs J F de Miranda, Couwenhouven 
56/12, NL3703EW, Zeist, Netherlands. 
To make a reservation, please write to: 
S M Andrews, Dutch Meeting, OSME, c/o The Lodge, Sandy, 
Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK. 
Twelfth Annual General Meeting 
The twelfth AGM will be held on Saturday 7 July 1990 in the Lechire 
Theatre, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, 
London. Doors open at 1.30 pm for a 2.00 pm start. The afternoon will 
include three speakers: Nigel Cleere will speak on 'Nightjars in the 
Middle East - a guide to their identification' and promises us not only 
slides of the species but also tape recordings of their songs; Mike 
Jennings will talk about his ABBA project (the Atlas of the Breeding 
Birds of Arabia) - OSME's conservation research fund has been support- 
ing this important project since 1985 and we look forward to news of its 
progress; and Geoff and Hilary Welch will talk on birds and conserva- 
tion initiatives in Djibouti, bringing us up to date on their work in this 
extra-limital part of OSME's region. 
Everyone is welcome at the AGM (including non-members) but to 
obtain free entry to the Museum you need to obtain a ticket (free) in 
advance. Please write, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope and 
stating the number of tickets required to: The Secretary, OSME, c/o The 
Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL, UK. Please allow 14 days for 
delivery. 
Arabic bird names project 
OSME is running a project to collect in one place the many and varied 
Arabic names of birds, both those in the literature but also more impor- 
tantly those in common usage amongst farmers, fishermen, hunters and 
the like in the OSME region. While being of intrinsic cultural interest, 
such a list could also be of great value to conservation; knowledge of 
local names for birds is of inestimable value in any discussion or 
promotion of the conservation of wildlife at the local level. 
I should be very interested to hear from any members who have noted 
local names, however few, for birds in their region. I am looking for 
transcriptions of the names as they sound (however unsuccessful the 
transcription may seem to you!), and an indication of what bird species 
or groups the names refer to. Also valuable would be information on 
where the name was found and who was using it. Those members who 
can write in Arabic should transliterate the name into arabic script if 
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