Reinhard gives a clear example, but to answer the query more simply, if Child had variants that were obviously derived from the same source he placed them all under one capital letter and used the lower case letters to distinguish these variants from each other. This usually means that some variants from one printed source have been more or less accurately copied into other printed sources. The minor variations were then annotated in the appendix to each ballad. Another reason was where some of the antiquarian collectors had sent their version to other antiquarian collectors and these therefore appeared in several collections with minor variations.