340 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



tracted, and the skin reduced to the size desired. A strinsj 

 is then run through the head, which is suspended in the hut, 

 and solemnly abused by the owner, who is answered by the 

 priest, speaking for the head, after which the mouth is sewed 

 up to prevent any chance of a reply. This abuse is repeated 

 on feasts and on any special occasion. The heads are essen- 

 tially trophies of victory, corresponding to the scalps of the 

 North American Indians, being usually those of enemies kill- 

 ed in warfare. 



The tribe among which tliis mode of preparing human heads 

 is practiced is that of the Macas, as well as sundry sub-tribes 

 occupying the country immediately on the eastern side of 

 the Andes, a few degrees south of the equator. The head in 

 the National Museum is from one of the sub-tribes called the 

 Jibaros. Jour. Anthrop. Institute, III., 30. 



FOSSIL CORALS OF THE EOCENE OF THE WEST INDIES. 



In a paper on the fossil corals of the eocene formation of 

 the West Indies, Professor Duncan states that the affinities 

 and identities of the fossil forms with those of contempora- 

 neous reefs in Asia and Europe, and the limitation of the spe- 

 cies of the existing Caribbean coral fauna, establish the cor- 

 rectness of the views put forth by S. P. Woodward, Carrick 

 Moore, and himself concerning the upheaval of the Isthmus 

 of Panama after the termination of the miocene period. 16 

 A, October, 1^1^. 



NUMBER OF AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Messrs. P. L. Sclater, secretary of the Zoological Society of 

 London, and Osbert Salvin, editor of the London Ibis, have 

 commenced the printing of their long-contemplated catalogue 

 of birds of America south of the United States. This will be 

 of great value to ornithologists in view of the zoological ac- 

 complishments of the gentlemen mentioned, and the richness 

 of the material to which they have access. In their own pri- 

 vate collections are embraced nearly all the birds enumera- 

 ted in their catalogue, the percentage of desiderata being very 

 trifling. The catalogue is arranged in systematic order, the 

 species of each genus being enumerated under it, with an in- 

 dication of the locality. Of the fimily of Tanagers alone the 

 authors enumerate 306 species, of which they possess spec- 



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