On Thu., 13 Oct. 1994, Eugene Hunn wrote:

Add to that the insidious influence of Acronym, native language of
bureaucrats, we'll all be exclaiming over sightings of WTSPs, PESPs,
PEFAs, etc. I'll never get the hang of those bird banders secret code names!

Gene Hunn.

On Thu, 13 Oct 1994, Dianna Harbin 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?
>
> This seems to be a general trend in the (American English?) language.
> I'm irritated by the devolvement of "pants" into "pant", and "jeans" into
> "jean". If only we could hold back the tide!
>
>