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