ls from Sikyatki, and, I
believe, the finest piece of prehistoric aboriginal pottery from the
United States, is that figured in plate CXLVI, _d_. This remarkable
object, found with others in the sands of the necropolis of this
pueblo, several feet below the surface, is decorated with a highly
conventional figure of a bird in profile, but so modified that it is
difficult to determine the different parts. The four appendages to the
left represent the tail; the two knobs at the right the head, but the
remaining parts are not comprehensible. The delicacy of the detailed
crosshatching on the body is astonishing, considering that it was
drawn freehand and without pattern. The coloring is bright and the
surface glossy.

The curved band from which this strange figure hangs is divided into
sections by perpendicular incised lines, which are connected by zigzag
diagonals. The signification of the figure in the upper part of the
bowl is unknown. While this vessel is unique in the character of its
decoration, there are others of equal fineness but less perfect in
design. Competent students of ceramics have greatly admired this
specimen, and so fresh are the colors that some have found it
difficult to believe it of ancient aboriginal manufacture. The
specimen itself, now on exhibition in the National Museum, gives a
better idea of its excellence than any figure which could be made.
This specimen, like all the others, is in exactly the same condition
as when exhumed, save that it has been wiped with a moist cloth to
clean the traces of food from its inner surface. All the pottery found
in the same grave is of the finest character, and although no two
specimens are alike in decoration, their general resemblances point to
the same maker. This fact has been noticed in several instances,
although there were many exceptional cases where the coarsest and most
rudely painted vessels were associated with the finest and most
elaborately decorated ware.

The ladle illustrated in plate CXLII, _e_, is one of the most
beautiful in the collection. It is decorated with a picture of an
unknown animal with a single feather on the head. The eyes are double
and the snout continued into a long stick or tube, on which the animal
stands. While the appendage to the head is undoubtedly a feather and
the animal recalls a bird, I am in doubt as to its true
identification. The star emblems on the handle of the ladle are in
harmony with known pictures of bird