THE OOLOGIST 



9 



any general wearing they must be ac- 

 companied witli tlie eagle feather. This 

 bird is impersonated in the dance of 

 the Medicine Men by a perfect re- 

 semblance of its flying action, alight- 

 ing, squatting and rising; and songs 

 are sung in its honor. 



The Winnebagoes have a myth per- 

 taining to the woodpecker, which runs 

 as follows: There was once a man 

 whose younger brother was stolen by 

 all the spirits allied together. As this 

 man went all over the upper and lower 

 regions of the earth looking for his 

 brother, he finally, in an exhausted 

 state, approached his lodge, using his 

 bow as a cane. The woodpecker kept 

 flying back and forth in front of him, 

 and the man finally gave vent to his 

 annoyance. The woodpecker said: 

 "Oh, we intended giving our grandson 

 •some information " So the man said, 

 "Oh, gandmother, give me information 

 concerning my brother and I will paint 

 you with my paint." So the wood- 

 pecker told him how the spirits had 

 combined together and stolen his 

 brother, and that he was then in the 

 lower regions with the bad spirits. So 

 whenever any one is given to gossip, 

 the Indians call him or her a wood- 

 pecker. 



The Dakota Indians believe that if 

 the woodpeckers make their nesto 

 near a field, they must not be harmed, 

 although those nesting away from a 

 field may be robbed by the Indians 

 for food if they are starving. In some 

 mysterious way these woodpeckers oc- 

 casion rain for a field and are other- 

 wise propitious for the field. 



The bluejay is said to utter the cry 

 "jayjaich" and that is the Winnebago 

 name for the bird. In winter he fol- 

 lows the Indians from place to place, 

 eating the scraps of food which he 

 can find outside the lodges. He is 

 called a jester, and they say he imi- 

 tates various birds, his sharp rasping 



cry being an imitation of the hawk. 

 His blue color is said to be a touch 

 of the blue sky which was at one time 

 given to him and which he still carries. 

 If a person eats a blue-jay, his or her 

 consort will surely die. Therefore, 

 only old and unmarriageable people 

 ever eat bluejay. 



The Dakota Indian song of the blue- 

 jay represents him as shivering in the 

 wind when the first autumn cold ar- 

 rives : 



"H'h'h'h'h'h'l 



I'm freezing; O my heart is sad, 



Give me a worn out blanket please 



H'h'h'h'h'h'h'1'l'o." 



The whippoorwill in Winnebago is 

 "gagominak," named after its cry and 

 meaning sit that way. In the spring 

 the appearance of this bird was a 

 sure sign that danger of frost had 

 passed, and, in early days, the Indiana 

 planted their corn after it had arrived 

 from the south. Its cry as well as the 

 cry of the quail were used in Indian 

 wars for communications between 

 scouting parties. Many an Indian 

 baby when crying was hushed by the 

 cry of these birds. The mother would 

 say: "Hush, child, do you not hear the 

 enemy?" The quail is called "whistle 

 bird" by the Winnebagoes. The 

 Apaches used the top-knot of the 

 southern quail for ceremonial and or- 

 namental purposes. To the Winne- 

 bagoes the cry of the quail does not 

 indicate approaching rain as it does 

 to the Whites, but the robins cry in 

 fair weather indicates rain, and in wet 

 weather indicates fair. 



Various animal habits have in- 

 fluenced the social life of the Indians, 

 and none more than the dance of the 

 prairie chicken. As described by Dr. 

 Beede, it is as follows: At the mating 

 season, the prairie chickens dance in 

 a large circle, side by side. Usually 

 in pairs not yet mated; a female on 

 the left and a male on the right; 



