476 



APPENDIX. 



Ardea Rufescens. 

 Ardea Egretta. 

 Ardea Candidissima. 

 Ardea Ludoviciana. C?) 

 Ardea Nycticorax. 

 Ardea Coerulea. 

 Ardea Lentiginosa* 

 Ardea Virescens. 

 Ardea Exilis. 

 Aramus Scolopaceus. 

 Phoenicopteras Ruber. 

 Platalea Ajaja, 

 Ibis Alba. 



Numenius Longirostris. 

 Tringa Wilsonii, 

 Tringa Semipalmata. 

 Totanus Semipalmatus. 

 Totanus Vociferus. 

 Totanus Flavipes, 

 Totanus Chloropygius. 

 Totanus Macularius. 



Totanus Bartramius. 

 Limosa Fedoa. 

 Scolopax Grisea. 

 Scolopax Wilsonii. 

 Gallinula Martinica. 

 Podiceps Minor. 

 Sterna Cay ana. 

 Sterna Boysii. 

 Larus Atricilla. 

 Thalassidroma Wilsonii. 

 Anas Boschas. 

 Anas Strepera. 

 Anas Acuta, 

 Anas Americana, 

 Anas Discors. 

 Pelecanus Onocrotalus. 

 Phalacrocorax Carbo. 

 Phalacrocorax Graculus, 

 Trachypetes Aquilus. 

 Phaeton ^Ethereus, (?) 



COMMUNICATION FROM MR. SCHOOLCRAFT. 

 THE RED HAND. 



The iigure of the human hand is used by the North American Indians to 

 denote supplication to the Deity or Great Spirit ; and it stands in the system 

 of picture writing as the symbol for strength, power, or mastery, thus de- 

 rived. In a great number of instances which I have met with of its being 

 employed, both in the ceremonial observances of their dances and in their 

 pictorial records, I do not recollect a single one in which this sacred charac- 

 ter is not assigned to it. Their priests are usually drawn with outstretched 

 and uplifted hands. Sometimes one hand and one arm, but more commonly 

 both are uplifted. It is not uncommon for those among them who profess the 

 arts of medicine, magic, and prophecy (the three are sometimes united and 

 sometimes not) to draw or depict a series of representative or symbolical fig- 

 ures on bark, skins of animals, or even tabular pieces of wood, which are a 

 kind of notation, and the characters are intended to aid the memory in singing 

 the sacred songs and choruses. When the inscriptions are found to be on 

 wood, as they often are in the region of Lake Superior and the sources of 

 the Mississippi, they have been sometimes called "music boards." I in- 

 duced a noted meta, or priest, to part with one of these figured boards, many 

 years ago, and afterward obtained impressions from it in this city by passing 



