Yes! What an appropriate word to use, Gene: mutation. As Dennis said,
this is off the subject of birds (again), and I honestly did try to keep
quiet about this one, but language (and the uses and abuses thereof) is
simply too dear to me. Call me a purist, and I'll say thank you. Yes,
that "s" has a purpose, and so does the final comma in a series (another
reason to dislike journalistic writing) -- and while I'm at it, has
anyone noticed the trend toward using an apostrophe plus an "s" to
indicate the plural form of a noun? Aaaarrrggghhh!

Thanks for your indulgence. {:-)

Lisa
***************************************************
/|/| * The First World War, caused by the assignation *
| | | * of the Arch-Duck by a surf, ushered in a new *
| | | * error in the anals of human history. *
\|\| * *
>{}{}{}{}<++>8 * from The World According to Student *
/|/| * Bloopers, by Richard Lederer *
| | | ***************************************************
| | | illustrator of dragonfly: Conrad Berube
\|\| Lisa M. Smith <subplot at u.washington.edu>


On Wed, 12 Oct 1994, Eugene Hunn wrote:

> On Wed, 12 Oct 1994, Eugene Hunn wrote:
>
> Maybe so. But this may be one of those mutations that leads to an
> evolutionary dead end...
>
> Gene.
>
> On Tue, 11 Oct 1994, Museum Informatics Project wrote:
>
> > >Date: Mon, 10 Oct 94 10:03:34 -0700
> > >From: Eugene Hunn <hunn at u.washington.edu>
> >
> > >On another issue of language: I have noticed a tendency (which I find
> > >slightly irritating) to leave of the "-s" in pluralizing bird names
> > >.. What do you all think?
> >
> > What!???!! Our American English is evolving (devolving? revolving?) right
> > under this anthropologist's linguistic nose (huh?), and he's "irritated"?
> >
> > I say "Five lash for you!"
> > Peter
> >
>