diff --git a/doc/scsh-manual/syscalls.tex b/doc/scsh-manual/syscalls.tex
index b45c394..bdcda9b 100644
--- a/doc/scsh-manual/syscalls.tex
+++ b/doc/scsh-manual/syscalls.tex
@@ -2700,7 +2700,8 @@ This is described for each procedure below.
     are optional, and default to \ex{\#f}, \ex{\#f}, \ex{\#f}, 0, 
     and 0 respectively.
     This is useful when creating a \ex{date} record to pass as an
-    argument to \ex{time}.
+    argument to \ex{time}. Other procedures, however, may refuse to work
+    with these incomplete \ex{date} records.
 \end{desc}
 
 \subsection{Time zones}