blers, even, we have in Iowa the black and white creeper (Mniotilta varia), that excels most woodpeckers in ability to scramble over and thoroughly search the bark of a tree. The whole family of creepers, the Certhias, - represented with us by the little brown creeper, (Certhia familiaris), — is also able to compete successfully with woodpeckers on their own ground. But perhaps the most expert of all the perchers that have taken to clambering over trees are the nut-hatches. A very common one is the Sitta Carolinensis, which may be seen almost any day on trees in our streets and door-yards. Its nervous and rapid movements, its slaty-colored back, and black crown must be familiar to all. It moves upward and downward with equal facility and always head foremost; the upper and under side of a limb are explored with equal ease; rarely resting, it frisks up and down, round and round, over and under, in and out, finishing a tree and ready for the next long before the average woodpecker would be able to collect himself and get fairly under way.

The habit of climbing is certainly an ancient one among woodpeckers. All the genera have the feet, tongue, bill, tail feathers, etc., modified in substantially the same way, and this would point to an ancestor that practiced their characteristic habits before the modern genera began to diverge. On the other hand, we may fairly conclude that since climbing is rather exceptional among perchers, the few groups that practice it have acquired it at a comparatively recent date, and it is quite possible that competition with climbing perchers may constitute a large share of the disturbing cause which has compelled certain woodpeckers of late to abandon the habits of their ancestors.

It is worthy of note, too, that the species which have suffered most in this competition are among the largest of our Northern woodpeckers. With the exception of the pileated woodpecker, they are in fact the largest, and furnish another illustration of the fact that nature looks with but small favor upon mere bulk. A little nerve often outweighs a large amount of muscle.

The pileated woodpecker frequents deep forests, and I have never been able to observe its habits. Its retirement, however, has withdrawn it from competition with the more agile forms we have noticed, and if food is only sufficiently abundant there is no immediate necessity for giving up its ancestral habits. The redhead and flicker, preferring open glades, are brought into constant and active competition with more sprightly and energetic climbers, and find themselves obliged to adopt other habits in great measure, or perish.

ABORIGINAL SHELL ORNAMENTS, AND MR. F. A. BARBER'S PAPER THEREON.

IN

BY R. E. C. STEARNS.

N the May number of the AMERICAN NATURALIST (page 271) Mr. E. A. Barber, in an article on Stone Implements and Ornaments from the Ruins of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, remarks: "The marine shells which were converted into beads by the ancient tribes, so far as ascertained by the investigations of the United States Geological Survey, during the summer of 1875, were the Oliva and (possibly) the Busycon or Murex. . . . Figure 7, Plate I., represents a specimen of the Oliva biplicata (probably), although the shell is so weather worn that the specific characteristics are almost entirely obliterated. Still it strongly resembles this species of the Pacific coast, and is very likely the In a foot-note Mr. Barber says that "it may be Olivella

same."

gracilis."

The figure referred to certainly does not strongly resemble 0. biplicata, and if reasonably accurate, the specimen from which the figure was drawn does not belong to the said species. It may be either 0. gracilis or 0. dama,1 common Gulf of California forms, not found as yet north of latitude 25° N. on the ocean side of Lower California, or it way be 0. botica, which like O. biplicata is a northern species, not found in the Gulf.

There is no species of Busycon on the Pacific Coast, and Murex, though found in the Gulf, seldom occurs on the outer shore north of Cape St. Lucas, and is rare at the cape. "Murex" as used here is exceedingly vague, for the Muricida are so largely represented upon this part of the West American or more exactly West Mexican coast, and includes so many wellmarked groups, that the name of the genus, subgenus, or group should be given.

The importance of an accurate determination of species of shells, in connection with the "ancient tribes" of the region. named in Mr. Barber's paper, and as related under similar conditions to ethnological questions, ppon a brief review of the points involved, will be seen at a glance.

If the beads or ornaments were made of the shells of Murex and Olivella, either O. gracilis or 0. dama, Gulf forms, it in

1 Cooper in Geog. Cat., sp. 732, credits San Pedro, Cal., with this form, but it has not been verified.

2 Whether Murex proper or the markedly prominent group, Phyllonotus, is not stated by Mr. Barber.

dicates a line of communication, intercourse, traffic, and possibly migration by the way of the Gulf of California and the Colorado River. If the Olivella is 0. biplicata, and the beads, which it is said are as thin as a wafer and of the circumference of an ordinary pea, are what I suspect,1 then we have a right to infer that these interior people were in communication directly or indirectly with the California tribes north of what is now known as Lower California. If any of the shell ornaments are made of some species of Busycon, then communication with the Gulf of Mexico is implied.

If all of the shells cited by Mr. Barber, and involved in doubt by the indefiniteness of his paper, are actually represented in the material collected, then the whole question as to the origin, distribution, and characteristics of the extinct tribes of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona is still further complicated, for it indicates intercourse, traffic, and perhaps migration in three directions, and the relations of these interior people with the maritime or coast tribes of both sides of the continent, or through, or with intermediate tribes, become a factor which has to be duly weighed and considered, the importance of which is only equaled by its complexity.

It is highly probable that an examination of the shell ornaments mentioned by Mr. Barber by some competent conchologist familiar with West American shells and with the ethnological material of the California mounds would authenticate the species of which Mr. Barber's shell ornaments are made, and it is to be hoped that he will have them carefully examined, and state not only the species but the authority for their determination. By doing so he will add much to the value of his researches, and the object of this criticism will be accomplished.

THE

THE LONG-JAWED GOBY.

BY W. N. LOCKINGTON.

HE somewhat inelegant title I have given to this curious little fish cannot be said to be its vernacular name, since, like the greater portion of the creatures that inhabit the world, it has not as yet acquired a commonly received name in our language, and the only name it has a perfect right to is the Latin one bestowed by its first describer, Dr. J. G. Cooper, namely, Gillichthys mirabilis.

1 Similar beads are found in the California mounds, and are simple concavoconvex disks cut out of the body whorl of O. biplicata.

As Gillichthys is simply a compound of the name of a celebrated American icthyologist with the Greek word for a fish, and mirabilis means nothing more than "wonderful" or "curious," this Latin name gives no idea of the fish, so it will be as well to call it the long-jawed goby, as its chief peculiarity consists in its tremendous length of jaw.

A garpike has a long jaw, and so has an alligator, and it is not unlikely that the title will call up in the minds of some who read this the idea of a terrible mouth, armed with bristling rows of teeth. This would be a great mistake, for our little fish has no teeth worth bragging about, and does not open his mouth any wider than a well-behaved fish should do. The great difference between his long jaws and those of a garpike is that the latter's project forwards, while those of our goby are prolonged backwards immensely.

The long-jawed goby was discovered by Dr. Cooper in the bay of San Diego, among seaweed growing on small stones at the wharf, and in such a position that it must have been out of water from three to six hours daily, though kept moist by the seaweed.

Dr. Cooper's two specimens held their place as curiosities among the olla podrida of the Museum of the California Academy of Sciences for several years, no one suspecting that the fish was a resident of the neighborhood of San Francisco, as no specimens were ever found in the fish-market.

A few months ago two specimens were brought to the Academy by one of its members, who stated that he had obtained them. from some Chinamen who lived on the marshes near the mouth of San Antonio Creek, Oakland; that they were found by digging in the mud beside the brackish creeks that intersect the marshes, and that the Chinamen eat them, and find them good.

These specimens were not so large as those presented by Dr. Cooper, and differed from them in the much smaller proportionate length and width of the singular cartilaginous expansion of the maxillary bone, which, uniting with a membrane from the lower jaw, continues backwards as a long fold or pouch as far as, or even beyond, the gill-covers, and gives to the fish its unique appearance.

On a more recent occasion a single Gillichthys, much larger than any of those before mentioned, was presented by a gentleman, who said that the fish, which was new to him, was abundant upon his ranch in Richardson's Bay, in the northern part of the bay of San Francisco; that the Chinamen dug them up and

ate them, and that he had had about eleven specimens cooked, and found them good, tasting, he thought, something like eels, the twelfth specimen he had preserved in alcohol, in the interest of natural science. This gentleman had the opportunity of observing something of the mode of life of these fishes, and informed us that their holes, excavated in the muddy banks of tidal creeks, increase in size as they go downwards, so that the lower portion is below the water level, or at least sufficiently low to be kept wet by the percolation from the surrounding mud.

When the various specimens now acquired were placed side by side, the difference in the relative length of their jaws was very conspicuous, for while in the smallest it was about one-fifth of the total length, in the largest it exceeded one-third.

As the fish had now been found in two places in the bay, I thought I would try to find it also, and to this end sallied out one morning, armed with a spade, and commenced prospecting in a marsh at Berkeley, not very far from the State University. For a long time I was unsuccessful, as I did not know by what outward signs their habitations could be distinguished, and the extent of mud-bank left bare by the retreating tide, was, as compared with my powers of delving, practically limitless.

At last, toward evening, while digging in the bend of a small creek, in a stratum of soft, bluish mud, and at a depth of about a foot below a small puddle, I found five small fishes, which at first I believed to belong to an undescribed species, so little did they resemble the typical G. mirabilis, but which proved, upon a closer examination, to be the young of that species. There was the depressed, broad head, the funnel-shaped ventral "disk" formed by the union of the two ventral fins, and the compressed tail of the long-jawed goby, but where were the long jaws? The jaws were, of course, in their usual place, but their prolongations had only just commenced to grow along the sides of the head, and were not noticeable unless looked for. A comparison of the various specimens proved conclusively that the strange-looking appendage is developed during the growth of the fish, as will be seen by the following measurements of four individuals :

}

In the smallest specimen the maxillary expansion extends beyond the orbit for a distance about equal to that which inter