‘Twas for the Birds

In addition to the “ . . . sandpipers, dowagers, mondo curlers, (and) marble goblets . . . “ that Evelyn De Wolfe writes of in her well-done article, perhaps one might also expect wallets, cattle regrets, black-sullied rovers, and candymill canes to occur.

We remember Alice in Wonderland, and to the Gnat’s question, “What’s the use of their having names if they won’t answer to them?” We join with Alice in her answer: “No use to them but it’s useful to the people that name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?”

And the sandpipers, dowitchers, long-billed curlews, marbled godwits, willets, cattle egrets, black-bellied plovers and sandhill cranes probably would join the Gnat in his reply, “I can’t say.”

NANCY AND HAL SPEAR

Hermosa Beach