454 



SCIEJS'CE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 146. 



feet wide, and H feet high ; the second, 138 feet long, 

 18 feet wide, and 1-J feet high. 



The animals represented vary from 79 to 109 feet 

 in length, and are from two to three feet in height. 

 No two are exactly alike in outline, though the dif- 

 ference is more in the shape of the head than in the 

 general form. It will be noticed that they are all 

 tailless, though, of the whole number of beasts sur- 

 veyed by me to the present time, fully two-thirds 

 have tails. Considered as works of construction, 



Ml/ 





Scale of feet IT^.o 





they being in relief, these animals are very fine ; but, 

 taking the size and shape of the legs and head in pro- 

 portion to the body, they are decidedly clumsy. In- 

 deed, with a few exceptions, the animal-shaped 

 mounds of western Wisconsin, also, are no excep- 

 tion to this rule. It is probable that each leg, as 

 built, was intended to represent a pair of legs rather 

 than a single one, and this may account for their 

 clumsiness. 



The birds of this group are each different in form, 

 and are more symmetrical than the animals, which is 

 usually the case. Though symmetrical, the wings of 

 bird effigies are nearly always much longer than 

 they should be in proportion to the length of the body 

 and head as compared with natural birds. 



An ornithological friend (Dr. Thomas. S. Roberts of 

 Minneapolis) has furnished me a list showing the ac- 

 tual length — from point of bill to the end of longest 

 tail-feather — and breadth, from tip to tip of wings, 

 fully outstretched, of some forty- six North American 

 birds. Taking this length as the unit, I find the pro- 

 portions of four of them to be as follows ; viz, — 



Of the Magpie (the lowest) 1 : 1.28 



" Wild turkey 1 : 1.29 



'' Bald eagle 1 : 2.365 



" Fish-hawk (the highest) .... 1 : 2.80 



Now, on examining the diagrams of forty-three un- 

 doubted bird-effigies surveyed by myself, it appears 

 that fifteen are over the extreme natural limit given 

 above — the ratio of one of them being as high as 

 1 : 7.20, and that of the very lowest not less than 

 1:1.50. The actual size of this longest 'bird' is, 

 length of body, 77 feet ; and from tip to tip of wings, 

 554 feet. 



It will thus be seen that to classify these earthen 

 imitations of birds according to any natural system 

 is almost an impossibility, and, with a few exceptions, 

 it is the same with the effigies of animals, reptiles, 

 etc. An instance may be given of one near Viola, 

 Wisconsin, which looks more like a deer than any 

 other animal. Its head is turned as if looking over 



its back, but the tail spoils the whole effect, on 

 that supposition ; it being 140 feet in length, nearly 

 twice the length of the body (74 feet). 



There are effigies undoubtedly representing turtles 

 and lizards ; there is also a class to which either name 

 can be applied. The question is. To which category 

 do they belong ? 



In view of all these facts, therefore, it would ap- 

 pear that attempts to speculate about the object or 

 uses for which these fantastic earthworks were con- 

 structed, or concerning the precise kind of animal, 

 etc., represented by the effigies, might be considered, 

 in the present state of our knowledge of the subject, 

 a little premature. As matters of fact, however, it 

 may be stated that an examination of some hundreds 

 of these mounds justifies the drawing of two conclu- 

 sions, first, that the creatures point or head, with 

 a very few exceptions, in a southerly direction ; 

 second, that when situated near a stream the feet of 

 the quadrupeds are towards the water. 



At intervals, between Guttenberg and Yellow 

 River, there are mounds and embankments which 

 occur either singly or in groups, but there are only 

 two other points in that stretch where effigies occur. 

 About one mile south and east of the group described 

 in this article there is a single bird-effigy. Near Sny 

 McGill, about three miles above Clayton, there is a 

 group of 92 mounds ; two of them represent animals, 

 and two birds ; the remainder are round mounds and 

 embankments. While I was surveying this group, 

 Mr. Frank Hodges of Clayton opened one of the 

 larger tumuli, and found a number of skeletons in it. 



T. H. Lewis. 



St. Paul, Minn., Nov. 2. 



Coleoptera of America. 



The note in Science (vi., 382) conveys a very erro- 

 neous idea as to the result of recent studies upon the 

 number of species of North American beetles. 



The number given in Austin's supplement is 9,735 

 (not 9,704, as stated in Science)-, but as the supple- 

 ment was to be used in connection with Crotch's list, 

 it was numbered continuously wtih it, and no allow- 

 ance was made for the reduction and duplication of 

 numbers. Taking these into consideration, the sup- , 

 plement contains but little over 8,850 species. 



The list just issued by the American entomological 

 society contains over 260 unnumbered names which 

 should be added to the 9,238 when this list is compared 

 with previous ones. Recent studies have increased, 

 not reduced, the number of species of North Ameri- 

 can beetles. Samuel Henshaw. 



Boston, Nov. 7. 



Marsh's Dinocerata. 



In my review of Professor Marsh's work on the 

 Dinocerata occurs a blunder for which I wish to 

 apologize {Science, June 12, 1885, p. 489). This error 

 is as follows : " In the figure of Dinoceras, however, 

 the humerus is incorrectly drawn (compare plate 28, 

 fig. 2)." The figure here referred to is the humerus 

 from the inside, that in the restoration is of course 

 seen from the outside, and the two are in no sense 

 comparable. I cannot explain how such an oversight 

 came to be made, but now that my attention has been 

 called to it, it is only proper to make the correction. 

 This is, however, a very non-essential part of my 

 criticism, which in other respects I do not wish to 

 modify. The Reviewer. 



