1132 The American Naturalist. [December, 
Kea prefers an animal with long fleece to which it can cling. It would 
seem, moreover, that the bird is after the fat rather than the flesh. A 
Kea has never been seen on a dead body, and the probabilities are that 
it also feeds on the blood. The various stories told of the Kea are 
then true in part—it does attack sheep. But it is naturally carnivo- 
rous, for, in addition to fruits and grains, it feeds on insects. It has, 
then, not changed its régime in adding mutton to its ménu; it has 
simply extended its depredations. Revue Scientif., Aug., 1895, p. 248.) 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
A preliminary examination of aboriginal remains near 
Pine Island, Marco, West Florida.—The significance of Colonel 
Durnford’s able and interesting communication to the AMERICAN 
NATURALIST for November, 1895, descriptive of his discoveries in South 
West Florida last Spring, may gain force, it is thought by the courteous 
Editor of this Department, if I add a few comments in regard to my 
own later observations in the same field, and in regard to the relation 
this find seems to bear to Eastern American Archeology in general. 
It was my good fortune to be under the care of Doctor William Pep- 
per and at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania when 
Colonel Durnford called at the Museum of the University and exhibited 
a few of his valuable specimens to its Director, Mr. Stewart Culin. It 
was also my good fortune both to meet Colonel Durnford and see his 
specimens at the time, and to receive from him then a full account of, 
and later, a series of detailed notes upon, his exploration. 
From these communications and from examination of the articles he 
brought, I inferred that probably Colonel Durnford had investigated 
not an isolated place of the sort he so well describes, but a typical de- 
posit such as might, by further search, be discovered in connection with 
other shell settlements in the same region. I therefore did not hesitate 
to pronounce this find of his one of the most important yet made on 
our southern coasts, and with a view to ascertaining more relative to 
its nature and to learning whether my inference in regard to its typical 
character was tenable or not, I gladly seized the opportunity afforded 
by the suggestion of Doctor Pepper, (whose views coincided with mine) 
that I extend a health-trip in the South, to the scenes of Colonel Durn- 
1 The department is edited by Henry C. Mercer, University of Penna, Phila. 
