HENDERSON = ees Se 
HARRINGTON ETHNOZOOLOGY OF THE TEWA INDIANS 3 
can not be ignored, the effects are but local. Vast areas in the South- 
west have never been subjected to the ravages of large domestic herds, 
because from the time the region was first explored the lack of water 
has prohibited the use of many such areas for extensive grazing pur- 
poses. A study of the literature of early exploration does not indi- 
cate general distribution of vast herds of antelope, elk, and deer, 
and especially is this true of elk. Certainly within the period desig- 
nated (30 years immediately preceding 1906) there has been no gen- 
eral distribution of large game in great herds, although antelope and 
deer have been abundant locally and are still common in places. It 
may be said of the species of animals whose bones have been taken 
from various pueblos that many of them may have been so rare that 
a naturalist might search the region for a year without seeing one. 
The bones represent the accumulated results of many hunting expe- 
ditions, more or less extensive, besides the daily hunting of many 
men for generations. An elk rib was taken from an ancient pueblo 
northwest of Santa Fe, yet old men from two neighboring pueblos 
say they have never seen an elk. Likewise the bison was known to 
many of the old Indians in the upper Rio Grande valley, although 
they had never seen one alive. 
It is exceedingly probable that the important species inhabiting 
the Tewa region during the ancient occupancy were the same as at 
present, except the elk and mountain sheep, which have disappeared. 
The bison, no longer known in New Mexico in a wild state, was not 
found, perhaps, in this part of the Rio Grande valley and could be 
obtaimed only by barter or by long excursions through a country 
inhabited by hostile tribes. Though the present report lists a large 
number of animals for the region, a critical analysis shows that very 
few of them could have been important as a source of food. 
In this connection the invertebrates may be almost wholly dis- 
regarded, though possibly in seasons of unusual abundance grass- 
hoppers may have been a much-relished addition to the bill of fare; 
they were certainly much used farther west. It must be remembered, 
however, that invasions of these pests in sufficient numbers to make 
them important as a source of food for a large population would mean 
the destruction of the corn crops and of the grass and other vegeta- 
tion on which the game animals feed, thus reducing the supply of 
the ordinary food of the human inhabitants. There were undoubtedly 
fish in all the important streams, but they could not have been 
numerous enough to have played a large part in sustaining the 
number of people who lived in the region, even if the latter were no 
more numerous than at the time of the Spanish conquest. Reptiles 
and amphibians may be wholly disregarded, as they do not occur 
in sufficient numbers to be important, though of course with a more 
abundant water supply there would have been more frogs. Most of 
