January 6, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



vireo, phebe bird, song, field, and cbipping sparrows. When out 

 riding on Aus;. 4 we heard the strain of a meadow lark, and on 

 the 6th the noisy tirade of a white-eyed vireo. 



On Aug 8 the note-bonk tells of a fine concert, when a gold- 

 finch, an indigo bird, field, song, and chipping sparrovv sang, an 

 oriole whistled a few times, and a yellow -throated vireo was tune- 

 ful by spells for a long while. 



Aug. 15. Red-eyed vireo, chewink. and field sparrow; 16(h, 

 yellow throated vireo, phebe, goldfinch; 17th, oriole, chewink; 

 18th, red-eyed vireo; 19th, yellow-throated vireo, and "orioles 

 make themselves heard nearly every morning now." Aug. 21, 

 field sparrow, wood pewee, and black and white warbler. 



Aug 29. " The yellow-throated vireo sings nearly every day — 

 almost the only bird we hear nowadays. Yesterday we noticed 

 the songs of a goldfinch and a song-sparrow ; chickadees also were 

 musical." This closes the month's record, but it is noted down as 

 something unusual, that the yellow-throated vireo continued to 

 sing during every forenoon for the first six days of September. 



There are usually a few fiery days in mid-summer when nearly 

 every bird is silenced, but rarely an August morning passes with- 

 out a salute to the dawn from sparrow or goldfinch. 



A RARE FORU OF POLISHED STONE IMPLEMENTS AND 

 THEIR PROBABLE USE. 



BY WALTER HOUGH, WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Among the collections from Mexico, Central and South America, 

 exhibited in the Columbian Historical exposition at Madrid, the 

 writer noticed a number of oblong polished blocks of hard stone of 

 unknown use, averaging 3J inches in length, 2f inches in width, 

 and IJ inches in thickness. The broad surfaces of these stones 

 are plane, bearing a number of grooves parallel to the length, 

 froming ridges like those seen on Polynesian tapa mallets. 



The edges, as a rule, are hollowed out by pecking, seemingly 

 for convenience in grasping the block, so that the section is that 

 of the modern eraser for the blackboard. Often these blocks are 

 only nicked at the corners, and usually two sides and one end 

 only are hollowed out, which seems to indicate that they were 

 mounted in a handle, perhaps by means of a wythe going around 

 the hollowed edge. 



In most cases both sides are ridged, one side coarse and the 

 other much finer; a peculiarity noticed in the Polynesian mallet 

 of square section, which often bears four grades of ridges, which 

 are used successively in reducing the bark to thinner texture. 



Only one of the blocks seen is round in outline; a few others 

 have rounded corners ; the ridges are parallel and the ridged sur- 

 faces perfectly fiat. An aberrant block of this type, which is 

 probably a stamp, has a convex surface, with sawed diagonal 

 grooves crossing (hatchwork) at either end bounding a band of 

 horizontal lines enclosing shallow bored pits and a central series 

 of shallow bored circles with cores. 



The material is usually hard basalt or porphyritic rock, and 

 the channels bounding the ridges are fine examples of sawed 

 work. 



The resemblance of these objects to those used by so many dif- 

 ferent peoples, in beating out fibrous bark for clothing, paper, 

 etc.. is very striking. May it not be said that this is a prehistoric 

 implement for the same purpose, and that they give an insight 

 into the manufacture of the paper upon which the Mexican codices 

 are painted? In Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and certain countries of 

 South America, the present aborigines use ridged wooden mallets 

 resembling the Polynesian for making bark clothing. 



It may also be affirmed that there is no other form of imple- 

 ment than the one having the combination of ridges and grooves, 

 that is useful in expanding and separating the fibres of bark 

 evenly without rupture, which is evident from the effect produced 

 by the blow. 



The distribution of the 31 bark-beaters measured and desrribed 

 by the writer is as follows: Mexico, 25; divided among the 

 Nahuas, (12); Totonacs, (1) ; Tarascns, (6); and the MiztecsZapo- 

 tics, (6). One of these in the Mexican collection has been chan- 

 neled, probably by the Tarahumares, and adapted for one side of 

 an arrow-smoother, the other side is a smaller block of freestone 



of reddish color. This was taken from a cave anciently inhabited 

 by the Cromachi. Two bark beaters are from Nicaragua; one 

 in the collection of Dr. Carlos Bovallins of Upsala. Sweden, and 

 the other from the exhibit of the government of NicaragUD. One 

 specimen is from Columbia in the collection of the Archaeological 

 Museum of Madrid and three from the exhibit of Costa Rica. 



After examining the paper upon which the Mexican codices are 

 written, the opinion is expressed that it is not made from the 

 magney, but is from a tree furnishing bark available for paper, 

 probably of the family to which the mulberry belongs. 



ETHNOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



BY E. W. BRABROOK. 



In the early part of 1892, on the sugi^estion of Proftssorliaddon 

 of Dublin, the Society of Antiquaries of Lom'on. the Anthropo- 

 logical Institute, and the Folk-Lore Society appointed delegates 

 to discuss the means of combined action for obtaining simultaneous 

 observations on the monuments of antiquity, the physical char- 

 acters of the people, and their customs, traditions, and beliefs in 

 various parts of the United Kingdom. They agreed to seek the 

 co-operation of the British Association, which has local cor- 

 responding societies in connection with it, and received au- 

 thority to act as a committee of that association, with the addi- 

 tions of a delegate from the Dialect Society, and of others specially 

 representing Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. It was generally 

 admitted that the success of the work depended upon its being 

 taken in hand at once, since the forces impelling country folk 

 towards the great towns, and the rapid means of transit from 

 place to place now available to the very poorest, are fast effacing 

 all special local peculiarities, and mixing up inextricably the races 

 of which the population is composed. 



The first step of the committee has been to issue a circular to 

 persons known to be well acquainted with the rural districts, re- 

 questing them to indicate such villages and places as appear 

 especially to deserve ethnographic study, so that a list might be 

 formed, ont of which a selection might afterwards be made for 

 the survey. The villages or distiicts suitable for entry on the list 

 are defined to be such as contain in general not less than a hun- 

 dred adults, the large majority of whose forefathers have lived 

 there so far back as can be traced, and of whom the desired 

 physical measurements, with photographs, might be obtained. 

 For such typical villages and the neighboring districts the com- 

 mittee propose to record (1) physical types of the inhabitants. (2) 

 current traditions and beliefs, (3) peculiarities of dialect. (4) mon- 

 uments and other remains of ancient culture, and (5) historical 

 evidence as to continuity of race. In each such place I hey will 

 endeavor to obtain the assistance of obserxers resident in the lo- 

 cality. 



The response which the comtnittee have obtained to this pre- 

 liminary inquiry has been more general and encouraging than 

 they had expected. In some places they have lieen met with the 

 lament, — this ought to have been done fifty years ago, and it is 

 now too late; 'but from numerous others, in all quarters of the 

 three kingdoms, they have received information of places where 

 the people are still primitive in their idea-i and customs, unaf- 

 fected by intercourse with strangers, and bear a marked strain of 

 one or other of the races by which this country has been (enpled. 

 For the use of these informants, a brief code of dir ectiot:s is being 

 prepared. 



This endeavor to record the natural liistory of the elements 

 which go to make up the population, so far as they can be traced 

 in the localities where its race-elements have remained undis- 

 turbed, will. I have do doubt, interest many of those whose an- 

 cestors have carried to the United Staff's some recollection of the 

 f.eculiarities and customs of the people of that part of the United 

 Kingilom from which they sprung. 



The Journal of Hygiene will be the name of the Herald of 

 Health on the 1st of January, 1893. The Herald of Health is now 

 in its 43d year and has been edited since 1866 by Dr. M. L. Hol- 

 brook. The journal is published in New York, at $1 a year. 



