This paper discusses the idea that the potential atmospheric sources and sinks of nitrous oxide (N2O) discussed by Prasad <1994, this issue> may not be inconsistent with the observed vertical profiles of the N2O mixing ratios. For this purpose the vertical distributions of N2O mixing ratios were calculated in one-dimensional model atmosphere with and without the new sources and sinks. It was found that the inclusion of the new sources and sinks in the model atmosphere predicts very nearly the same mixing ratios as are predicted by the use of only the classical chemistry of N2O. This means that these sources and sinks are in accord with atmospheric observations also, given the very good agreement between the classical chemistry predictions and the observations. The important issue of the observed correlations of the N2O mixing ratios with those of other long-lived tracers such as CH4 and CF2Cl2 is also discussed. The key point is that while similar chemistries (i.e., similar nature and spatial distributions of sources and sinks) ensure good cross-species correlations, the reverse is not necessarily true. It is therefore possible that N2O may be correlated with CH4 or chlorofluorocarbons despite differences in their chemistry suggested by the potential new sources and sinks of N2O.¿ 1997 American Geophysical Union