iSS^.l Correspondence. i}^0\ 



wish to cull attention to it more particularly, because it is mainly to orni- 

 thologists that the student of ethnology must look for linguistic material of 

 this sort. Every vocabulary designed for Indian word-collecting contains 

 long lists of names of animals, birds, and plants, for which the Indian 

 equivalents are wanted. But while every Indian knows the names of 

 more or less of the animals and birds about him, very few word 

 collectors have an equal knowledge, and having obtained an Indian 

 name for some bird pointed out or described, they often are quite 

 at a loss to identify the bird and to render the Indian name into English; 

 even when so rendered the inaccuracies of such lists greatly detract from 

 their value. Hence very little material of the kind contributed by Mr. 

 Cooke is accessible to linguistic students. As the field-work of ornithol- 

 ogists not infrequentlj' brings them into contact with Indian tribes, they 

 can, with the expenditure of comparatively little time and trouble, do a 

 real service to ethnology, and at the same time furnish matter by no 

 means unimportant to ornithology. Having in hand, as the ornitholog- 

 ical collector frequently does, the skins of the birds for which names are 

 desired, the names can be obtained and verified with absolute accuracy. 

 Some of the myths, of which Mr. Cooke gives an example, are exceedingly 

 interesting, and when related at length with the particularity character- 

 istic of Indian folk-lore, afford very valuable hints of Indian customs and 

 Indian philosophy. In connection with such myths it is of course desira- 

 ble to know the names of the animals to which they relate, and I have 

 frequently been called upon to identify the birds and animals figuring in 

 such myths, collected with great care and labor, when all that could be 

 given by the ethnological collector in the way of description were a few 

 phrases almost or quite meaningless. Bird myths naturally mean more 

 to the ornithologist than to anv one else, and they can be collected by him 

 with an accuracy attainable by no one else. 



Mr. Cooke remarks that "These Indians [Chippewas] claim to have a 

 name for each and every kind of bird inhabiting this country; as a fact 

 they have no specific name for fully one-half of those which yearly nest 

 before their eyes, or pass by in migration." That Indians should know 

 little of the birds, especially of the smaller kinds, that visit this country 

 only as migrants, is not perhaps surprising, but that anj- considerable 

 number of birds inhabiting their country, even of the smaller and incon- 

 spicuous kinds, should not be known to Indians and be named by them 

 is surprising. If it can be substantiated in the case of the Chippewa 

 tribe, I should be inclined to attribute their present ignorance to a depar- 

 ture from true aboriginal knowledge and habits. As among whites, knowl- 

 edge is unequally distributed, so is it among Indians. Some are much 

 more learned than others in the nature and ways of animals; but among 

 any considerable number of Indians some one can almost invariably be 

 found equal to the task of naming any animal or bird living in his coun- 

 try. Such knowledge is much more universal among Indians than it is 

 among the whites. Almost every bird or animal is distinguished from 

 associated species bv the possession of some peculiar work or distinctive 



