May 25, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



815 



junction with Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, a paper 

 upon marked human bones from a Pre- 

 historic Tarasco Indian Burial Place in 

 Michoacan, Mexico. The former, accord- 

 ing to the writer were almost an unknown 

 Indian tribe of about four thousand, liv- 

 ing in a mountainous country, difficult of 

 access, in the northwestern part of the 

 State of Jalisco, on a spur of the great 

 Sierra Madre. Their great interest arises 

 from their religious proclivities, and while 

 nominally Christians, their peculiar symbol- 

 ism and intricate ritualistic usages, retain 

 a trace of their pagan character, and in them, 

 it is suspected, there remain relics of the 

 ancient Cuachichilian culture. In this 

 bulletin a paper by Dr. Lumholtz and 

 Hrdlicka on marked human bones revealed 

 an odd practice of marking or notching the 

 bones of the dead. These bones are re- 

 garded as trophies " from fallen enemies, 

 and the grooves signified the number slain 

 by the owner of the bone." 



Dr. Allen, Mr. Chapman, Dr. Bean, sup- 

 plied papers on mammals, birds, fishes, 

 and Dr. E. A. Mearns a general study of 

 the fauna of the Hudson Highlands. 



Volume eleven of the Bulletin is entirely 

 devoted to a Catalogue of the Type speci- 

 mens contained in the Hall collection of 

 fossils. The Hall collection contains a 

 great number of the original specimens de- 

 scribed in the Paleontology of New York, 

 and a complete list of these is of importance. 

 This Catalogue was prepared by Professor 

 R. P. Whitfield assisted by Dr. E. O. 

 Hovey. 



Volume twelve contained twenty-one 

 papers quite evenly distributed amongst 

 the subjects hitherto treated in the Bulletin. 

 Some important additions were made to 

 North American mammals by Dr. Allen 

 from the results of the Constable Expedi- 

 tion to Arctic North America conducted by 

 A. J. Stone. Amongst these were further 

 notes on the new Mountain Sheep ( Ovis 



Stonei), a new Jumping Mouse, four new 

 Voles. Dr. Allen also described in this 

 Bulletin new rodents from the United 

 States and South America ; Mr. Chapman 

 reviewed the birds taken on the Peary Ex- 

 pedition to Greenland ; Mr. E. "W. Nelson 

 gave descriptions of new squirrels from 

 South America ; Mr. Gerritt S. Miller of 

 new bats from the West Indies. 



A very interesting paper by Dr. Ales 

 Hrdlicka on an '. Ancient Anomalous Skele- 

 ton from the Valley of Mexico ' revealed 

 human remains having 26 ribs instead of 

 the usual number 24. Furthermore this 

 additional pair of ribs appears to be cervi- 

 cal, as there was found ' an articular facet 

 on each side of the seventh cervical,' which, 

 if granted, proved an extension of the 

 thorax upward. There was also a partial 

 blending of the first and second ribs, or 

 there was a ' bicipital rib.' The interest of 

 these facts appears to lie in the indicated re- 

 version to lower animal forms. The tibise 

 are flattened (platycnemic), with a back- 

 ward inclination of their heads. Whether 

 these remains were Aztecan or Taltecan, 

 the author of this paper was unable, from 

 known data to say. 



Mr. Beutenmiiller continued his able 

 synopses and revisions of Lepidoptera. 



The papers which conferred the most 

 distinction on this volume were those re- 

 lating to vetebrate paleontology. These 

 were four in number from the pens of Pro- 

 fessor Osborn, Dr. Wortman and Dr. Mat- 

 thew. The ancestry of the dogs, foxes, 

 otters, was discussed, by which it was 

 shown that their descent could be traced 

 from the Eocene, that the family of the 

 Procyonidse (a small family holding the 

 American raccoons) could be traced as an 

 offshoot of the dogs in the later Eocene 

 (Oligocene), that the South American Foxes 

 came from North American Miocene spe- 

 cies, and that the establishment of the new 

 family Viverravidte was necessary. This 



