1.   It was the bleached skull of a small bird.

2.   Actually, the head was an old bleached skull, found by a farmer along Troublesome Creek near Steffenville, Mo.

3.   One of the Western rooms has a cowhide headboard, a bleached skull on the walls and a nightlight made of spurs.

4.   With a pyramid of bleached skulls seeming to stare directly at them Thursday morning, a choir of young women sang a horrifying dirge.