THE OOLOGIST'S JOURNAL. 



The Way of the Transgressor is Hard." 



The following we reprint from the 

 January Oologist, and we are pleased 

 to see that Mr. Lattin has at last 

 awakened to the facts that the Oolo- 

 gist's Journal attempted to expose in 

 previous issues. We are with you 

 brother Lattin ! 



"This month we sorrowfully add to 

 our roll of dishonor the names of Let- 

 son Balliet alias Dean Schooler, of Des 

 Moines, la., and that of J. W. P. Smith- 

 wick, of Sans Souci, N. C. The neces- 

 sity of publishing these names we much 

 regret as both are young men of the 

 best home reputations and their famil- 

 ies are of high rank. 



Balliet claims that his sending out 

 very common eggs for rarefies 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 " and 

 that owing to his tender years he 

 " didn't know any better," we are in- 

 clined 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 estimation, than ever after. 



Smithwick has doubtless palmed off 

 more spurious eggs during the past 

 two years on innocent and unsuspecting- 



collectors — and older ones too, who 

 had the utmost confidence in bis state- 

 ments and integrity — than any single 

 oologist that has come to our notice. 

 We have long suspected that his Flor- 

 ida Borrowing Owls were spurious and 

 last season returned them to him with- 

 out explanation, he was still persistent 

 and among others sent us a set of 

 "Saw- whets'' "we had him" there sure 

 and by a little mauouvering, elicited 

 from him three different "original" 

 datas for this single set of rarefies, but 

 the datas fail to agree." 



"We know that many of our ad- 

 vanced oological friends will fairly turn 

 green with envy after reading of our 

 bonanza, now as these three datas (we 

 didn't try to obtain any more) for a 

 single set were secured on July 24th. 

 Aug. 3d and Aug. 13th respectively. 

 how many could we have secured up to 

 date ? It is our candid opinion that 

 we would have found our " stool pigeon' 

 as prolific as that renowned Massachu- 

 setts Flicker. 



We, however, were not alone in ac- 

 quiring desirable sets of Smithwick. 

 only last week a friend in a neighboring 

 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- 

 tity cannot be positively determined by 

 the specimens themselves we consider 

 valueless and 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." 



