II 



ZOOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION AND ETHNOLOGICAL 

 EXPLANATION OF ANIMAL FORMS. 



In the descriptions of the animals which follow the general 

 plan will be to consider first the identification purely from a 

 zoological point of view, and, secondly, the connection and, 

 wherever possible, the meaning of the use of the various animal 

 figures wherever they occur. 



MOLLUSCA 



Fasciolaria gig ante a. Representations of this marine 

 sheU are found in several places in the codices. It is the only 

 large Fusus-like species on the western coast of the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and, indeed, is the largest known American shell. It 

 is therefore not strange that it should have attracted the atten-" 

 tion of the Mayas and found a place in their writings. Several 

 figures are shown that represent Fasciolaria (PL 1, figs. 1-9). 

 One in the Codex Vaticanus 3773 (PI. 1, fig. 3) in common 

 with those shown in PL 1, figs. 2, 6, 9, has the spire represented 

 by segments of successively smaller size. The species of Fas- 

 ciolaria occurring on the Yucatan and adjacent coasts is charac- 

 terized by numerous prominent bosses or projections on its 

 later whorls, and these, too, appear in conventionaHzed form 

 in most of the representations. In PL 1, fig. 2, the second 

 whorl, and in figs. 6, 9, the third whorl is shown with three stout 

 tubercles in side view, corresponding to those found in this 

 region of the shell. Figs. 7, 8 (PL 1) are glyphs representing 

 the same species, but as in fig. 4, the spire is omitted, though 

 the knobs are present. Round spots of color are evidently in- 

 tended by the markings on the shells shown in figs. 3, 5, 6 (Pl.l). 

 (296) 



