THE ALLIGATOR GROUP. 



145 



boscis, are characteristic. The mouth is open enough to reveal two rows of short 

 teeth, all of the same pattern. Perforations for the external auditory openings 

 communicate with the hollow interior of the head. The neck is solid. The use 

 of the delineating colors is out of the ordinary, black instead of red being the 

 more freely employed, especially for the broader bands and areas. The painted 

 designs have nothing to do with the skin markings of the tapir. The origin of 

 the motives is traceable to the alligator, although the choice of them in this in- 

 stance may have been without any special significance other than decorative. 

 There is no decoration on the ventral surface, from the chin to the end of the tail. 



The insignificant tail and 

 projecting buttocks of the 

 tapir are well characterized 

 in figure 245. The end of 

 the proboscis has been 

 broken off. The hollow 

 head and neck add con- 

 siderably to the capacity 

 of the vessel, the rim of 

 which rises from the back 

 of the animal figure. The 

 free use of black, as in 

 the preceding example, is 

 to be noted in the decora- 

 tion. Longitudinal panels 

 reaching from the head to 

 the tail enclose the alli- 

 gator motives. Attached 

 to this specimen was a note in the handwriting of the collector as follows : — 



Fig. 245. — Zoomorphic vessel representing the tapir and ornamented with 

 alligator motives. Alligator ware. '/« 



Jan. 1878. ' Vtvala.' This huacal (waucal) seems to be continuous for miles along river 

 of same name. Graves vary from 3 to 12 feet deep, a very few having gold. Many 

 contain nothing desirable; others, 1 to 15 or 16 pieces, mainly pottery. J. A. McNiel. 



The Yale collection includes a number of rare bird forms that present some 

 very interesting characters. As far as I have been able to ascertain, complete 

 examples of this kind are not to be found in any other collection. The largest 

 of these (fig. 246) is from Divala. It is first of all a vessel, the globular form of 

 the body not being even masked by the addition of ornithomorphic characters. 

 Instead of two legs, there is a low annular support approximating in size that of the 

 circular rim at the mouth opening, the latter being gently flaring and painted red. 



The bird's head, which unfortunately is broken off, was placed rather low on 

 the shoulder at a short distance above the plane of greatest horizontal diameter of 

 the vase. Its shape and size can not be determined beyond the certainty that it 

 could not well have been relatively large without a greater distention of the sur- 

 face contour of the body at its base. The wings and tail are in nearly the same 

 horizontal plane as was the head, the wing attachment reaching from near the 

 Memoirs Conn. Acad., Vol. III. 19 



