diff --git a/src/main/java/picard/sam/AbstractAlignmentMerger.java b/src/main/java/picard/sam/AbstractAlignmentMerger.java
index 728c753e56..98fd7c151b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/picard/sam/AbstractAlignmentMerger.java
+++ b/src/main/java/picard/sam/AbstractAlignmentMerger.java
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ private void addIfNotFiltered(final Sink out, final SAMRecord rec) {
         if (includeSecondaryAlignments || !rec.getNotPrimaryAlignmentFlag()) {
             out.add(rec);
             if (this.progress.record(rec) && crossSpeciesReads > 0) {
-                log.info(String.format("%d Reads have been unmapped due to being suspected of being Cross-species contamination.", crossSpeciesReads));
+                log.info(String.format("%d Reads have been unmapped due to suspicion of Cross-species contamination.", crossSpeciesReads));
             }
         }
     }