368 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1163 



tern-slide views of the region involved and of strips 

 of shore showing the large mimbers of stricken 

 fishes. His paper was discussed by Messrs. Hay, 

 Bartsch, Goldman, Radeliffe and others. 

 Changes in the Avifauna about Turlington, Iowa, 



1885 to 1917: Paul Baktsch. 



From 1885 to 1893 Dr. Bartsch was resident of 

 Burlington and an enthusiastic bird collector. In 

 the ideal conditions found for birds at Burlington 

 he had recorded 275 species. Since 1893 he has 

 been a sporadic visitor to Burlington, but has al- 

 ways retained his interest in the local avifauna. 

 Passenger pigeons, Carolina parakeets, whooping 

 ajid sandhUl cranes, trumpeter swans were found 

 about Burlington, but are no longer seen. The 

 same is true of the Mississippi kite, the swallow- 

 tailed kite, wild turkey and prairie chickens, the 

 latter having been shot in times past from the 

 speaker's porch. The prothonotary warbler, once 

 common, appears to have gone northward. New 

 birds now found at Burlington have come from the 

 west, such as western meadowlark, red-shafted 

 flicker. Other newcomers are the tufted tit and 

 Carolina wren. Many of these changes are due to 

 human agencies, some are unexplainable. Dr. 

 Bartch's paper was discussed by Messrs. Hay, Mc- 

 Atee, Wilcox, Goldman, Jackson and others. 

 M. W. Lyon, Jb., 

 Secording Secretary 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 507th meeting of the society was held at the 

 New National Museum on February 20. The 

 speaker of the afternoon was Dr. I. M. Casanowiez, 

 of the New National Museum, who presented a 

 paper on "The Fish in Cult, Myth and Symbol." 



Dr. Casanowiez said: "The fish, as the inhabi- 

 tant of the mysterious, indestructible, never-resting 

 water, early impressed man deeply and was re- 

 garded by him as the genius and representative of 

 the life-producing element." The speaker stated 

 that one of the principal centers of ichthyolatry 

 in antiquity was Syria, where a fish goddess named 

 Derketo-Atargatios was worshipped as the personi- 

 fication of the fructifying power of the water. Be- 

 lief in the fish as a medium of transformation and 

 incarnation of spirits was noted among the an- 

 cients, while in later times the fish, next to the bird, 

 seems to have been a symbol of the departed hu- 

 man soul. The fish as carrier of man across the 

 water was illustrated by quotations from Herodotus 

 and the Bible ; and parallel narratives of a man be- 

 ing swallowed by a sea monster were quoted from 

 Greek, Polynesian and Cherokee lore. 



In conclusion the speaker stated that the fish was 

 generally considered as a being of good omen, be- 

 nevolent and beneficent toward man, and, by rea- 

 son of its own great fertility, a symbol of increase 

 and abimdance. 



The 508th meeting of the society was held at the 

 New National Museum, on March 6. This meeting 

 was devoted to a general discussion, the subject 

 being, "Problems connected with the Distribution 

 of the Aboriginal Population of America." The 

 speakers were Dr. John R. Swanton, Dr. Ales 

 Hrdliaka, Dr. Truman Michelson, Professor WU- 

 Ham H. Holmes, Dr. Walter Hough, Dr. J. Walter 

 Fewkes and Mr. Francis LaFlesche. 



Dr. Swanton introduced the discussion by stating 

 that the subject divided itself into a consideration 

 of the distribution of aboriginal population in 

 America quantitatively and qualitatively. "Popu- 

 lations," said Dr. Swanton, "may be classified 

 qualitatively according to their physical character- 

 istics, languages, cultural features, social organi- 

 zation and so on. Archeology has a bearing on all 

 these." He gave as one of the priaeipal prob- 

 lems to be considered the bearing of the data of 

 each class on the generally admitted Asiatic origin 

 of the American Indians and their diffusion from 

 the northwest. 



Dr. HrdUcka, speaking from the standpoint of 

 physical anthropology, stated that the distribution 

 of different physical types on the American con- 

 tinent has always been one of the main problems 

 of his branch of science in this country. Dr. 

 Michelson, speaking on the linguistics of the In- 

 dians, said : ' ' There is no single type of language, 

 no fundamental structure that is the same in all 

 linguistic stocks, though we find resemblances be- 

 tween them." Dr. Holmes spoke briefly on the 

 changes in the culture of the Indian which have 

 been produced by environment; and Dr. Hough 

 noted that transportation and artificial fire-making 

 were essential to the early inhabitants of this con- 

 tinent. Dr. Fewkes called attention to the fact 

 that early migrations in North and South America 

 were determined in large measure by the mountain 

 ranges and rivers, and by the food supply. Mr. La- 

 Flesche stated that the ancient rites of the Siouan 

 stock show that the migrations of the people were 

 influenced by the search for food. The first ani- 

 mal mentioned in these rites is the elk, succeeded 

 by the deer, and later by the buffalo, at which 

 period the mention of corn appears for the first 

 time. Frances Densmore, 



Secretary 



