PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 415 
14. Margarornis brunnescens. Rio Sucio, 1881. J. Cooper. 
15. Cymbilanius lineatus (fasciatus). Rio Sucio, August 15, 1882. J. 
Cooper. 
16. Grallaricula costaricensis. Navarro, October 30, 1882. J. Cooper. 
17. Phlogopsis macleanneni. Rio Sucio, 1882. J. Cooper. 
18. Microchera parvirostris. Rio Sucio, 1882. J. Cooper. 
A larger collection of Costa Rican birds lately presented to the Na- 
tional Museum by Dr. Van Patten, for many years resident at San José, 
included, among others, the following interesting species, those marked 
with an * being additional to Mr. Zeledon’s catalogue. 
* 1. Selasphorus ardens. 2. 
* 2. Selasphorus torridus. 6 and @. 
* 3. Chetura gaumeri Lawr. (Compared with types!) 
* 4. Glaucidium jardinei (in rufous plumage ;= “lansbergi, Ridgw.”). 
5. Leucopternis princeps. 3 adults. 
Unfortunately no labels were attached to Dr. Van Patten’s specimens, 
and we are therefore ignorant of the precise: localities in which they 
were obtained. : 
t 
ON AN ANTIQUE ROMAN MOSAIC FROM CARTHAGE, NOW IN THE 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Communicated by G. H. HEAP, Esq., United States Consul- 
General at Tunis. 
Many who visited the Centennial Exhibition will remember seeing in 
the Tunisian section the large and beautifully executed mosaic, repre- 
senting a Numidian lion seizing an antelope. This admirable work, 
which probably dates from 100 to 50 years before the Christian era, is 
of Roman workmanship, and was discovered at Carthage in 1873. It 
formed a very small part of the vault floor of a temple dedicated to 
Astarte (Aphrodite), the tutelary deity of the Carthaginians. The 
Romans, who assimilated the gods of the people they conquered as 
easily as they absorbed their territories, erected a temple to the god- 
dess of Carthage and adorned it with great splendor. It was situated 
on a commanding hill facing the sea, near the citadel and other public 
buildings.* 
The Tunisian Government a short time since enacted a law prohibiting 
private search for antiquities, but granted this privilege to the son of 
the prime minister at that time in power. The finder of treasures or 
antique works of art was required, under severe penalties, to give im- 
mediate information to this official. The Arabs, however, in spite of 
imprisonment, bastinado, or fire, not unfrequently appropriated what- 
“The remains of some of these edifices are still visible, although now the most con- 
spicuous object is the chapel, erected in 1835, by Louis Philippe, King of the French, 
and dedicated to the memory of his ancestor, Louis IX, surnamed ‘the Saint,” on 
the spot where tradition says he died of the plague in 1270 while besieging Tunis. 
