G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 339 



After the return of peace, a subvention of $36,000, payable in 

 three years, was made by the Municipal Council of Paris to the 

 society, and this timely contribution, administered with judg- 

 ment by M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, the director of the estab- 

 lishment, has resulted very satisfactorily. On the 1st of Jan- 

 uary, 1872, the buildings contained 121 mammals, 853 birds, 

 94 cocks and hens, and 138 ducks and geese, or a total of 1206, 

 valued at $9060. A year later, on the 1st of January, 1873, 

 the collection embraced 510 mammals, 3217 birds, 503 cocks 

 and hens, and 1916 ducks and geese, or a total of 6146, valued 

 at $31,672.-10 B, January, 1873, 72. 



CATALOGUE OF EHODE ISLAND MOLLUSCA. 



A catalosfue of the shell-bearino- moUusca of Rhode Island 



d? d? 



has lately been published by Mr. Horace F. Carpenter, and 

 has special reference to the collection in the museum of the 

 Franklin Society of Providence. According to this catalogue, 

 there are in the state 36 species of terrestrial moUusca, 39 of 

 fluviatile, and 131 of marine, or a total of 206. 



THE MUMMIED HEADS OF THE PERUVIAN INDIANS. 



Among the most curious objects in certain ethnological 

 museums (that of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington 

 included) may be mentioned a peculiar form of human head, 

 as diminutive in size as that of a monkey, the general features 

 well preserved, the hair long and dense, and the lips usually 

 sewed together with a large number of cords, which hang 

 down from them. Tufts of feathers and other objects are fre- 

 quently used for the embellishment of the preparation. On 

 examination it will be found that this head is composed ex- 

 clusively of the skin, all the bones and flesh having been re- 

 moved, but the precise mode of preparing this has for along 

 time been a puzzle to every one. 



Quite recently Mr. Buckley, an English traveler in the 

 Andes, took back with him to England several specimens of 

 these objects, and explains the mode of preparation. Accord- 

 ing to his statement, the head is removed from the body, and, 

 after being boiled for some time with an infusion of herbs, the 

 bones, brain, etc., are taken out through the neck. Hot stones 

 are then put into the hollow, and as they cool they are con- 

 tinually replaced by others. The head is by this process con- 



