THE OOLOGIST. 



15t 



much regret as both are young men of 

 tho best home reputations and their 

 families are of high rank. 



Balliet claims that his sending out 

 very common eggs for rareties was 

 through his ignorance, which is un- 

 doubtedly the truth, for no one but an 

 excessively ignorant collector would 

 have sent out Mourning Dove eggs for 

 those of the Saw-whet Owl, but Mr. B. 

 made a bad mess of it when he attempt- 

 ed to replace them under an alias with 

 woodpecker eggs, He promises to 

 "never do so any more" and to replace 

 any spurious eggs he may have sent out 

 with genuine ones or cash. 



Smithwick pleads "ignorance" aud 

 that owing to his tender years he "did- 

 n't know any better," we are inclined 

 to differ with him, however, for at the 

 age of 21 the average oologist is out of 

 swaddling garments and, in the North at 

 least, knows much more, in his own esti- 

 mation, than ever after. 



Smithwick has doubtless palmed 

 off more spurious eggs during 

 the past two years on innocent and un- 

 suspecting collectors — and older ones 

 too, who had the utmost confidence in 

 his statements and integrity — than any 

 single oologist that has come to our 

 notice. We have loug suspected that 

 his Florida Burrowing Owls were spur- 

 ious and last season returned them to 

 him without explanation, he was still 

 persistent and among others sent us a 

 set of "Saw-whets" "we had him" there 

 sure and by a little manouvering- 

 elicited from him three different "origi, 

 nal" datas for this single set of rareties 

 but the datas fail to agree. 



Data No. 1 reads: Collector, Franklin 

 Benner. Locality, Leech Lake, Minn 

 Data No. 2, "N. E. H" or J. W. p'. 

 Smithwick. Locality, near Leech Lake 

 Minn. Date, April 13, 1890. 



Data No. 3, "Miners" from C. A. 

 Wilej". Locality, "Copper Regions," 

 Mich. Date, April 19, 1890. Identifica- 

 tion was "A No. 1,' '"female caught on 

 nest" &c. 



We know that many of our advanced 

 oological friends will fairly turn green 

 with envy after reading of our bonanza, 

 now as these three datas (we didn't try 

 1o obtain any more) for a single set 

 were secured on July 24th, Aug. 3d 

 and August loth respectively, 

 how many could Ave have secured 

 up to date? It is our candid opin- 

 ion that Ave would have found our 

 "stool pigeon" as prolific as that renow- 

 ned Massachusets Flicker. 



In companship with our Owl datas 

 we have an equally wonderful array ac- 

 companying some Broad-tailed (v) 

 Hummers, to-wit: No. 1 Collector 

 Wm. G. Smith; Locality, Loveland, Col! 

 No. 2 "S. E. D" for J. W. P. Smithwick; 

 Pueblo Co., Col. No. 3 "Surveying par- 

 ty;" Yalencia Co., New Mexico. We 

 have failed to locate the "Co." yet, but 

 then we have the -"original" data. 

 We, however, were not alone in ac- 

 quiring desirable sets of Smithwick, 

 only last week a friend in a neighbor- 

 ing city sent us for inspection a set of 

 Cooper's Hawk Which S. sent him for 

 Swallow-tailed Kites from Starr Co., 

 Texas— poor Fool— and a set of Red- 

 starts, which S. personally collected 

 and saw the bird and sent them to our. 

 friend as Yellow-throated Warblers. 

 Every set of eggs that has passed 

 through Smithwick s hands, if its iden- 

 ty cannot be positively determined by 

 the specimens themselves we consider 

 valueless aud the data, from our own 

 experience, and from what we might 

 have secured by following up our own 

 "No. 3's," can "almost as truthfully be 

 filled out:— Collector, "Adam"; Local- 

 ity, "Oblivion." 



F. M. Kinne, formerly of Knoxville, 

 Iowa, but now of 419 Sixth Av., Des 

 Moines has for several years had a re-.' 

 putation of being very slow especially 

 in making returns to exchangers, he, 

 has_ apparently been prompt in offering 

 desirable specimens, but after receiving 

 your specimens it has required from, 

 one to three months of patient waiting, 

 continuous spurring and in many cases 

 serious threatening to elicit returns. 

 He usually gave plausible reasons for 

 delay and as far as our knowledge goes 

 eventually made matters straight, we, 

 have had dealings with him for years 

 and have never yet found him dishon- 

 est, and most sincerly trust that he can 

 now give a satisfactory explanation for 

 his long silence. 



In a personal letter to us Mr. Kinne 

 writes that he is now back on only 12 

 exchanges and that these were delayed 

 on account of sickness, moving, &j. 'He 

 says that these matters will be straight- 

 ened up as early as possible, and that 

 he will make everything to his patrons 

 entire satisfaction. We have confidence 

 that Mr. K. will do exactly as he has 

 agreed. 



