1876.] Anthropology. 557 
The Proceedings of the American Association for 1875 has appeared, 
and contains full reports or extended abstracts of C. V. Riley’s paper 
on Locusts as Food for Man, Whittlesey’s paper on Ancient Rock In- 
scriptions in Ohio, Morgan’s paper on Ethnical Periods and on Arts of 
Subsistence, Sternberg’s paper on Indian Burial Mounds and Shell-Heaps 
near Pensacola, Comstock’s Archeological Notes from Wyoming, Cof- 
finberry and Strong’s paper on the Explorations of Ancient Mounds in 
the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Farquharson’s paper on Re- 
cent Exploration of Mounds near Davenport, lowa, and Gilman’s paper 
on the Ancient Men of the Great Lakes. Several other papers are 
mentioned by title, but no abstracts are given. 
The Society of Anthropology of Paris has offered a prize this year to 
be presented to the author of the best paper upon the subject, The 
Slavonic Races, and Maps of the Countries inhabited by the Slavonians. 
The Atheneum for July 8th contains the remainder of the questions 
to be discussed at the International Congress of Orientalists at St. Peters- 
burg. They relate to Turanian, Japanese, Indian, Arabian, Persian, 
and Hebrew investigations. 
Professor Busk exhibited to the London Anthropological Institute, 
June 13th, a collection of skulls from the New Hebrides. Some of those 
from Mallicolo showed flattening of the forehead. 
The first seven articles of the Transactions of the New Zealand Insti- 
tute for 1875 relate to the Maori race, Moas and Moa-Hunters, and the 
relation between the Maoris and the Moa-Hunters. The tendency seems 
to be to discard the notions of Haast and others that the Moa became 
extinct many centuries ago, and that the Moa-Hunters were a prehistoric 
people, now quite extinct, and not at all related to the Maoris, 
A paper. by Mr. Rankin on The South Sea Islanders was read by 
Mr. Brabrook before the Anthropological Institute, June 13th, in which 
the title Mahori is proposed for the light-colored races of the Pacific 
Isles, and Papuan for the blacks. The author believes that the latter 
first peopled the greater part of the islands, and that the lighter race, 
coming later from the west, settled first in Samoa, and spread thence in 
all directions, mingling often with the Papuans. He showed several 
differences between the Maoris and the Malays, who seem to be a sepa- 
Tate race, 
In Nature for June 29th, the Rev. J. S. Whitmee makes some very 
Sound observations upon the errors which have been propagated with 
Teference to the supposed rapid decrease of the Polynesians, and the 
‘aie may apply to aborigines in general. The first source of error is 
the excessively high éstimates put upon these countries by early visitors, 
who assumed the thickly settled strips of coast which they explored as a 
‘ample of the whole country. In many islands, the author believes, the 
Population is actually increasing, owing to the beneficial influence of 
1 missionaries, the cessation of human sacrifice, cannibalism, and in- 
