November
7, 1980
Dear
Mr Plant:
I
have examined Bullock’s chicken bone from Mocha Island. It (Accession
#130325, catalogue USNM 322183; cite USNM catalogue number in any publication)
is a dark-stained and polished tarsometatarsus of extraordinary length and
robustness with a well developed spur. Its measurements are:
length
103.9 mm.
spur length 28 mm,
widest diameter
9.7 mm,
I
am enclosing the correspondence covering its accession into the national
collections. As far as I can ascertain there is no way at present to determine
its age accurately enough, short of destroying a portion of the bone to make
dating it worthwhile. If additional evidence suggesting the presence of
chickens in pre Columbian America comes to hand we could reconsider the
present decision.
You
might be interested in writing to Dr Carl Johannesson, Department of
Geography, Condon Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403. He has been
studying New World chickens with black bones.
If
I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.
Sincerely,
George
E.Watson
Curator
Division of Birds