28 BULLETIN 183, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



sequently inconclusive. If actually dog, tliese remains would indicate 

 a brute fully the equal of some of the huge animals possessed by 

 historic Siouan and other tribes of the central and northern plains, 

 presumably developed for pack and draft purposes. Other fragments 

 in the present series, including incomplete mandibles, pelves, etc., are 

 not open to doubt as to identity. They are from a dog or dogs of 

 medium or small stature, perhaps comparable to, or slightly larger 

 than, a spitz. It is impossible to characterize the animal further. 

 Such dogs might have been kept merely as household pets, for eating, 

 or for hunting; or they may have been one of the varied mongrel 

 breeds such as lurked about m.ost historic Indian villages. 



Bird remains included 20 bones of the turkey {Meleagris gaJlo- 

 pavo), one from the Canada goose {Branta canadensis)^ and the fe- 

 mur of a red-tailed hawk {Buteo jamaicensis) . As has been pointed 

 out in another section, turkey bones seem to have been a favorite in 

 awl making. There is, of course, no way of determining whether 

 use was also made of the feathers, or whether the bird was domesti- 

 cated. It should be observed that in proportion to the game birds 

 probably available here in aboriginal days, our excavations netted 

 remarkably little material. In view of the otherwise fair sample of 

 bone refuse found, I am not inclined to regard our largely negative 

 showing in this respect as a matter of chance alone. On the contrary, 

 it might indicate that the natives had a predilection for animal flesh 

 to the near exclusion of birds, or that the former was much more 

 readily obtainable. Bird bones, except in the case of the larger 

 species, are generally smaller and less resistant to breakage than 

 are those of most of the mammals utilized. 



Much rarer are the remains of fish and reptiles. From the surface 

 and from pit 26 came, respectively, a left and a right opercle, ascribed 

 to the buffalofish {Ictiohus sp.), and from pit 32 was taken the spine 

 of a catfish. A number of fish vertebrae are unidentified as to species. 

 A few fragments of turtle shell, unworked, apparently represent two 

 genera : Aviyda^ a soft-shelled turtle, and Pseudemys^ a pond or land 

 terrapin. Just what use, if other than as food, was made of these 

 last is not indicated.' 



MOLLUSCAN REMAINS 



Nine species of fresh-water mussels are represented by shells found 

 in various parts of the site. Identified in the Division of Mollusks, 

 U. S. National Museum, these include: Ainblema costata (Rafin- 

 esque), Anodonta grandis flana (Lea), Lampsilis siliquoidea 

 (Barnes), Lampsilis ventricosa occidens (Lea), Leptodea fragilis 

 (Rafinesque), Liguinia siibrostrata (Say), Pleurohema cocclnemn 

 (Conrad), Proptera alata megaftera (Rafinesque), and Proptera 

 purpurata (Lamarck). 



