Dec. 1896] ORNITHOLOGICAL VOCABULARY OP THE MOKIS 393 



achieved when he killed an elk in the White mountains of 

 Arizona, an exploit which his people do not intend shall be for- 

 gotten. Some hunters among the young men were found to 

 have a better acquaintance with the pinicoline species, with 

 which they met when hunting in the high mountains, and 

 Ongwischey acted as interpreter for them. 



My contact with the Mold Indians has been for such brief 

 periods and so intermittent that I have by no means mastered 

 their language or even its grammatical construction, although it 

 appears to resemble the English in the form of its descriptive 

 names, with which the present paper has exclusively to do. 



It will be observed that some of the Moki names are of Spanish 

 origin. The fact is the Moki tongue has become impure from 

 contact with Mexicans and half-bloods from some of the New 

 Mexican pueblos, where Indians and Mexicans live together. 



Although more attentive to nature than most whites, it must 

 be remembered that the Molds are not ornithologists, and can- 

 not be expected to name even all birds that have fallen under 

 their observation, much less such as have never attracted their 

 critical attention, or to discriminate between closely related spe- 

 cies or those which resemble one another in color or form. In 

 the accompanying list I have included all species of Arizona 

 birds for which I could obtain any name, although some of them 

 were manifestly coined at the moment. The bird was invariably 

 held in hand, or, whenever possible, shown to them alive, at the 

 time its Moki appellation was transcribed. Perhaps when some 

 small sparrow was presented for christening they would call it 

 simply chl'-e (little bird), and, when closely pressed for a more 

 distinctive title, they would call it pin'to-che-e (spotted little bird). 

 It was thought worth while to record names thus obtained, if for 

 no other purpose than to show the limitations of their ornitho- 

 logical knowledge. I have written the Moki, names phonetic- 

 ally, as pronounced by the Indians, and have not hesitated to 

 vary the spelling to suit variations in pronunciation by different 

 individuals, thinking thereby to make this vocabulary more use- 

 ful and intelligible to those who may subsequently acquire a 

 mastery of the language and desire to construct a complete Moki 

 vocabulary. 



The Mokis have a superstitious regard for most living things, 

 and many animals are held by them as sacred and made the 



