November 1, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



593 



tific names of the species, however, were at that 

 time unknown to both of us, and the subsequent 

 identiflcation , after our return, was entirely my 

 own work. Mr. Baker, however, has quoted 

 my notes and ideutiflcations throughout his 

 book as if they were his own. In many cases 

 he has supplemented them by original notes 

 which must have been drawn from memory — a 

 very unreliable source after a lapse of five years. 

 For instance, on p. 28, he says 'finches were 

 quite abundant, ' while they were in reality very 

 scarce, and p. 32 he records ' thrushes ' at 

 Glenn's Camp, while we only saw one thrush in 

 Yucatan, which was at another time and place. 



Strangest of all, however, is his account of the 

 Trogon. The bird was shot in the cactus thicket, 

 under the circumstances which he describes, was 

 a Motmot and not a Trogon, as my notebook 

 shows, and the only Trogon that we did col- 

 lect — in fact, the only one we saw — had not a 

 ' rose-colored breast, ' but was the yellow breasted 

 T. caligatus. 



In describing the eflfects of the rarefied air 

 during our ascent of Orizaba, Mr. Baker says : 

 ' ' I was seized with most violent symptoms. 

 My head swam, my eyes became bloodshot. 

 * * * * Another of my companions was 

 afiected in the same manner." As Mr. Baker 

 and I were together when we desisted in the 

 ascent I must be the one to whom he alludes, 

 and I can only say that for my part the account 

 is grossly exaggerated, nor did I see such signs 

 of distress in my companion. Indeed, Mr. 

 Baker's recollections of the trip seem in many 

 respects very dim, as the opening paragraph of 

 his book shows that he has forgotten the name of 

 the vessel upon which we sailed from New York. 



On page 97 Mr. Baker takes occasion to ridi- 

 cule the naming of the mollusks in the Mexican 

 National Museum, referring to one instance as 

 a 'most ludicrous error.' There is an old say- 

 ing that ' ' people who live in glass houses should 

 not throw stones, ' ' and it seems equally ' lu- 

 dicrous' to find on page 123 of Mr. Baker's 

 book a figure of our eastern kingbird {Tyrannus 

 tyrannus) labelled T. vociferus ; the white tail- 

 band, which is characteristic of the eastern bird 

 and absent in the other, being brought out 

 prominently in the cut ; and yet this figure was 

 drawn by the author especially for this work. 



It may seem scarcely worth while to call at- 

 tention to Mr. Baker's plagiarism as I have 

 done, but unfortunately this is not his first 

 oflfense, as can be seen on comparing his article 

 on the Round-tailed Muskrat, Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci. Phila., 1889, p. 271, with Mr. F. M. Chap- 

 man's earlier paper on the same subject, Bull. 

 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. II., p. 119, and it 

 seems only right that such practice should be 

 exposed. Witmbb Stone. 



Academy Nat. Sciences Phila. 



shells as implements. 



Professor Otis T. Mason calls attention, in 

 Science, October 11, 1895, to an illustration of 

 a perforated shell, said to have been used as a 

 scraper, given in von den Steiuen's work on 

 'The Natives of Central Brazil,' and resem- 

 bling those figured by Holmes in his 'Art in 

 Shell,' Pis. xxvi., fig. 3: xxvii., fig. 1. In shell 

 heaps on the shores of Frenchman's Bay, Mt. 

 Desert Island, I have found numerous valves of 

 the Mya arenaria similarly perforated. The 

 greater part seem to have been so pierced by 

 the hard beaks of the common crow, like those 

 found now on beaches. Others, however, show 

 such a rounded perforation as can only have 

 been made by man, and have the edge artifi- 

 cially smoothed. I have always supposed that 

 such smoothing was caused either by the lashing 

 to it, or the insertion, of a wooden handle, and 

 that the object was used as a spoon or ladle. 

 This seems to be corroborated by the circum- 

 stance that the inside of one of these shells is 

 covered by a hard incrustation resembling what 

 is often found upon fragments of pottery vessels 

 that have been used as cooking utensils. The 

 edges of the shells show no indication that they 

 have been used as scrapers. 



Henry W. Haynes. 



Boston, October 16, 1895. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Canyons of the Colorado. By J. W. Powell, Ph. 

 D., LL. D., formerly Director of the United 

 States Geological Survey, member of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences, etc. , etc. Mead- 

 ville. Pa., Flood & Vincent, The Chautauqua- 

 Century Press. 1895. 

 This is a sumptuous volume of 400 quarto 



