1921] SKINNER, A REMARKABLE SHRUNKEN HEAD FROM ECUADOR. 71 



Pellets gathered in the vicinity of a nest containing eggs from the 

 same locality May 11, 1921, yielded remains of 16 White-footed Mice 

 (subspecies?), 4 Meadow Mice, 1 Mole Shrew and one small bird, species 

 unknown. Fisher ("Hawks and Owls of the United States") in his 

 excellent account of the economic value of this species says, "The Long- 

 eared Owl is one of our most beneficial species, destroying vast num- 

 bers of injurious rodents and seldom touching insectivorous birds. The 

 birds killed by it are mostly seed-eating species, which do not benefit 

 the agriculturist to any great extent." 



While the Long-eared Owl, and in fact the great majority of our 

 owls, are recognized as extremely useful birds by ornithologists and 

 bird lovers, by far the greater number of people consider all birds of 

 prey as "harmful," and kill them on sight, regardless of the facts of the 

 case. The only hope for our fine birds of prey lies in the education of 

 the people as to their value. By exhibiting the skulls of injurious rod- 

 ents by the quart as is done in our new exhibit, it is hoped that those 

 who view it will be impressed by the great value of these natural "mouse 

 traps." 



A REMARKABLE SHRUNKEN HEAD FROM 



ECUADOR 



By Alanson Skixnek"' 



The Museum has recently obtained from Mr. Lewis B. Ager, form- 

 erly of the Panama Canal Zone, one of the most remarkable, if indeed, 

 not the most remarkable, shrunken head ever collected among the Jivaro 

 Indians of the Province of Oriente on the eastern slopes of the Andes 

 Mountains in Ecuador. 



This grizzly war trophy, shown in figures 39 and 40, is the venerable 

 head of an elderly white man who possessed a thick crop of curly, snow 

 white hair. Who he may have been, and the history of his death at the 

 hands of the Jivaro warrior who took his head, we will probably never 

 know. In all probability he was some hardy member of an adventur- 

 ous party of rubber hunters. At any rate, whatever his business in the 

 tangled tropical forests of Oriente, his last venture came to a sudden 

 end, probably by a poisoned blowgun dart or by a spear thrust. 



The nine tribes of the Jivaro stock inhabit a large territory, and do 

 not reside in villages as do most South American natives. Instead, they 



'"Curator of Anthropology, Milwaukee Public Museum. ..^_ 



