36 



SGIEIfCB. 



[Vol. IX , No. 206 



ample : a human head with one or two curls of hair 

 signifies a female ; deities, as shown by Schellhas, 

 are represented by the head with the peculiar fea- 

 tures found in their figures. The bird above men- 

 tioned (Kuch) is generally represented by a head, 

 with certain lines about the eye, used in the complete 

 figure to indicate the species. An idol is denoted by 

 the character a head, which Dr. Schellhas errone- 

 ously supposes to be the symbol for a certain deity. 

 The symbol for game quadrupeds is a rabbit's head 

 mounted on the Kan or corn symbol ; that for game- 

 birds, a turkey's head on the corn symbol ; etc. 



Inanimate objects are usually denoted by con- 

 ventional symbols having as the chief idea some 

 characteristic of the thing represented. For in- 

 stance : the symbol for house, or hut, found in all 

 the codices, has as its chief characteristics broken 

 lines indicating the thatching, and perpendicular 

 lines suggesting the posts. 



I have determined the signification of one charac- 

 ter in which color plays a part. This is the symbol 

 for Ekchuah, the god of pedlers or travelling mer- 

 chants. This is a basin-shaped character, indicating 

 the half of a calabash (Chu, in Maya), surroiinded by 

 a heavy shading of black (Ek, in Maya). It is found 

 accompanying the black deity in the Troano Codex. 



A few of the written characters are truly phonetic, 

 but my scant knowledge of the Maya language ren- 

 ders progress in this branch of the subject slow. 

 That there are no true letter-characters, as supposed 

 by Landa, mxist be conceded. I may add, in closing, 

 that I have discovered in the Cortesian Codex the 

 origin of this author's ' A.^ It is the symbol used to 

 denote the turtle (Aao), the conventional representa- 

 tion of the head of this reptile, and is in no sense 

 phonetic. 



A paper explaining these and other discoveries has 

 been prepared for the bureau anntial, and is now in 

 the hands of the printer. Cyeus Thomas. 



Youngsville, Penn., Jan. 10. 



On the coloration of mammals. 



I desire to call attention to the arrangements of 

 the color-marks on the skin of mammals, and to at- 

 tempt to show that some of them are correlated to 

 the distribution of nerves and to the positions of the 

 muscle-masses of the body. 



The white stripe on the side of the trixnk in Tamias 

 is the region of distribution of the superficial branches 

 of the intercostal nerves and those nerves in serial 

 homology with them. 



The white patches on the muzzle of the tiger an- 

 swer to the distribution of the infra-orbital nerves. 



The single black stripe on the withers of Equus 

 taeniopus lies near the centre of the region of the 

 scapula. In the tiger the abdominal stripes are in the 

 same series with those on the flank. In the locality 

 last named they range over the muscles and the 

 depressions between them without regard to the 

 anatomical conformation of the parts. On the an- 

 terior extremity it is quite different. In the lioness 

 the depression between the radial extensor mass and 

 the flexor mass is marked at the distal end of the 

 region with a longitudinal black stripe which is about 

 one-fifth the length of the fore-arm. The skin over the 

 extensors of the carpus is marked by a number of 

 spots, and that over the flexor mass by a few trans- 

 verse bars. The contrast between the two divisions 

 of the fore-arm is decided. 



In both the lioness and the tiger the cervical mass 

 and the gular region are separated by differences in 

 coloration. Two oblique stripes are seen limited to 

 the cervical mass. The depressions between the 

 acromio-cephalic and the brachialis anticus muscles 

 are marked by black stripes. 



The general distribution of the spots and stripes 

 on the skin over the scapula, and the muscles which are 

 inserted into it and over the extensor aspect of the 

 anterior extremity, form a separate group from those 

 of the rest of the trunk. 



The line of the malar bone of the tiger is distin- 

 guished by a broad, irregular bar. A more slender 

 one lies vertically over the masseter muscle. 



In addition to the above, it is found that the vn:in- 

 kles and folds in one animal answer to the per- 

 manent skin- bands or pigment-line^ in another. The 

 dorsi-facial folds of Phacochoerus are in the same 

 positions as the pigment-lines in the zebra The 

 bands on the trunk of the nine-banded armadillo are 

 the homologues of the transient folds of skin seen in 

 the instantaneous photographs of the hog taken at 

 the time when the limbs of the same side are at the 

 nearest jjoint one to the other. 



The medio-dorsal stripe which is so often met with 

 in mammals is probably a sequence of the general 

 deep-lying cause which determines the longitudinal 

 tyj)e of the vertebrate form. 



The disposition for the neck, withers, and the an- 

 terior limb to be more hairy than is the remainder of 

 the trunk, is probably associated with the localiza- 

 tion of the marks on the anterior extremity being 

 better marked than are those on the posterior. The 

 fore-limb has connections with the head as exact as 

 with the dorsum as far back as the origin of the 

 latissimus dor si. In the bison the shaggy surface 

 corresponds quite accurately to the proximal part of 

 the fore-limb and its extrinsic muscles. 



A mammal, in leaving the ground, from the hind- 

 limbs hunches up the withers in a conspicuous man- 

 ner. This region is more thickly haired and more 

 brightly colored in many bats than is the rest of the 

 trunk. Now, in the bat the shoulders and neck are 

 j^ermanently hunched, for the fore-limbs are scarcely 

 at all used for support. Haeeison Allen. 



Philadelphia, Jan. 4. 



Butterflies in southern Connecticut. 



During the summer and autumn of 1884 and 1885, 

 I was collecting butterflies in southern Connecticut. 

 In the first season I found Pyrameis cardui very 

 abundant, P. huntera comparatively rare, while of 

 P. atlanta I saw only two specimens, both of which I 

 secured. The next summer, on precisely the same 

 ground and in the same time, I took all I wanted of 

 P. atlanta, only two of the huntera, while I did not 

 see a single specimen of P. cardui. I should be glad 

 if some one would explain this. I do not imagine 

 my collections could have been extensive enough to 

 seriously affect the abundance of any of the species 

 in the locality.. 



I might also say, that, of a large number of speci- 

 mens of Argynnis idalia taken in the two seasons, a 

 very great majority were females ; and of the males, 

 not one was in a perfect condition, most of them 

 being badly torn and much faded. This would seem 

 to indicate that they appeared before the females. 



L. N. Johnson. 

 Evanston, 111., Jan. 8. 



