208 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 8. 



The original, says the author, was subse- 

 quently taken to Spain and deposited in the 

 library of the Duchess of Aveyro. M. Pin- 

 art adds that, fi'om correspondence with the 

 representatives of that family, he has reason 

 to believe this original is still in existence. 



Whether the ' writing ' was the familiar 

 pictography of the North American Indian, 

 or allied to that higher form which preA'ailed 

 in Mexico and Yucatan, may be decided by 

 a sight of the document itself. At any rate, 

 it is worth mentioning that this unknown 

 people had a recognized system of recording- 

 ideas; and possibly investigations in the 

 mounds of that locality may bring other 

 specimens to light . 



D. G. Brinton. 



TJniveesity of Pennsylvania. 



THE EARLIEST GENERIC NAME OF AN 

 AMERICAN DEER. 



In" September, 1817, Eafinesque pubUshed 

 descriptions of two species of deer from 

 Paraguay, which he named Mazama bira and 

 M. pita.'^ The first was based on the 

 Gouazoubira, the second on the Goitazoupita, 

 of Azara. Both had been previously de- 

 scribed by lUigerf; consequently the speci- 

 fic names fall. Mazama bira Eaf. ^^Cervus 

 rufus 111.; M. pita Kaf. =C simplidcornis 111. 

 But the generic name Mazama antedates by 

 many years the names Suhulo %, Passalites §, 

 Coassus 1 1 , and even Cariacus ^, and hence is 

 the earliest generic name for any American 

 deer, so far as known. Fortunately, the rules 



*Am. Monthly Mag., Vol. I., No. 5, Sept. 1817, p. 

 363. 



fAbliandl. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss., Berlin (for 

 1811), 1815, p. 117. 



tSubtdo H. Smith, Griffith's Cuvier, Vol. V., 1827, 

 p. 318. 



? Passaliles Gloger, Hand- u. Hilfshuch Naturge- 

 schiohte, 1, 1841, p. 140. 



II Coassus J. E. Gray, List. Mamm. British. Mus. 

 1843, pp. xxvii and 174. 



II Cariacus Lesson, Nouv. Tableau Eegne Animal, 

 Mammif., 1842, p. 173. 



of nomenclature demand that the type be 

 chosen from the species originally covered- 

 by the genus ; it cannot be taken fi-om those 

 subsequently added by Eafinesque himself 

 (in Am. Monthly Mag., Vol. I., p. 437, Oct. 

 1817; and Vol. II., p. 44, Nov. 1817). The 

 tjTDC therefore must be one or the other of 

 the two well known South American deer, 

 rufus or simplioicorim, and may be restricted 

 to the formr, which will stand as Mazama 

 rufa (lUiger). 



C. Haet Meeriam. 



JAMES OWEN DORSET. 



Eev. J. Owen Dorsey, Indian Hnguist, 

 died in Washing-ton, February 4, of typhoid 

 fever. For over twenty years Mr. Dorsey 

 was an enthusiastic student of aboriginal 

 languages, chiefly those of the Siouan fam- 

 ily. His acquaintance with these languages 

 was so extended and his grasp of principles 

 so strong as to render him one of the fore- 

 most authorities on Indian linguistics. Al- 

 though numerous publications have been 

 made under his name, the greater part of 

 the material collected and created during 

 his active career remaius unpublished. 

 Fortunately, this rich store of manuscripts 

 is preserved, under the systematic arrange- 

 ment of their author, in the Bureau of Amer- 

 ican Ethnology, with which Mr. Dorsey 

 has been connected from its organization. 



James Owen Dorsey was born in Balti- 

 more, Maryland, October 3] , 1848, and re- 

 ceived his earlier education in local schools. 

 He was remarkably precocious, reading He- 

 brew at the age often, and his vocal range 

 and power of discriminating and imitating 

 vocal sounds were exceptional. He entered 

 the Theological Seminarj^ of Virginia in 

 1867, was ordained a deacon of the Protest- 

 ant Episcopal Church in 1871, and during 

 the same year became missionarj^ among 

 the Ponha Indians, in what was then Dakota 

 Territory. There he began sj^stematic study 

 of Indian language, mji:h and custom. 



