38 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



tha,ii to any single person, the knowledge wliicli we have of the natu- 

 ral history and ethnology of the arctic circle of North America. 



Since Mr. MacFarlaue's change of station to an interior jiost he has 

 been prevented from malting many additions to his series ; but during 

 the year 1881 we were gratified at the receipt of a number of skins of 

 rare mammals, &c., contributions by him, and showing the persistency 

 of his interest in the ]S'ational Museum. 



Dr. James Moran, of the Medical Department of the Army, who fur- 

 nished collections in previous years, has also supplied several rare forms 

 of i)ottery and other aboriginal remains from Arizona. 



Miss Eosa Smith has continued her contributions of tishes from San 

 Diego, Cal. supplementing to some extent the work prosecuted there 

 in 1880 by Prof. D. S. Jordan, as referred to in the preceding portion 

 of this report. 



Mr. James G. Swan, of Port Townsend, Wash. Terr., whose contri- 

 butions to the ethnology and general natural history of Puget Sound, 

 have been noticed in almost every report for twenty years, has not inter- 

 mitted his exertions during 1881. Numerous collections of objects of 

 Indian manufacture, of fishes, &c., have been received from him with a 

 large amount of si^ecial information on the fisheries of Puget Sound. 



Mr. Jose Zeledon, of San Jos6, Costa Pica, to whose services as a 

 skilled ornithologist and collector reference has frequently been made, 

 has added to his many contributions by supplying some extremely rare 

 and possibly new species of birds of Costa Pica. 



ETHNOLOGICAL BUEEATJ. 



The Ethnological Bureau, established by Congress for prosecuting 

 researches among the Indian tribes of North America, with the view of 

 securing to ethnological science available records of races destined 

 ultimately to disappear, is continuing its interesting and important work, 

 under the able directorship of Major Powell, with marked and gratify- 

 ing success. The most important of these operations during the past 

 year consists of the work of Mr. F. H. Cushing, and that of Mr. James 

 Stevenson. Mr. Cushing has been a resident of the village of Zuui for 

 several years past, carrying his researches into the domestic habits, re- 

 ligious rites and ceremonies, and other features of the condition of the 

 Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, and he has obtained a vast body of 

 original information upon these subjects, which will, in time, be pub- 

 lished. He has made very large collections in ethnology, those ob- 

 tained in the caves of New Mexico being especially noteworthy. A 

 peculiarity in the religious observances of the Pueblo Indians consists 

 in their hiding away a memento of important ceremonials, in caves ac- 

 cessible with great difficulty, and only visited on such occasions. The 

 accumulations in these caves date back mauj^ years, and the specimens 

 gathered, illustrating the changes in methods and chronological peculi- 

 arities, are very interesting. 



