PAROQUET. 



139 



The particulars wherein it differs from the supposed toucans are so 

 many and striking that it will be superfluous to dwell upon them in de- 

 tail. Thoy will be obvious at a glance. 



Thus we have seen that the sculptured representation of three birds, to- 

 tally dissimilar from each other, and not only not resembling the toucan, 

 but conveying no conceivable hint of that very marked bird, formed 

 the basis of Squier and Davis' speculations as to the presence of the 

 toucan in the mounds. These three 

 supposed toucans have been copied 

 and recopied by later authors, who 

 have accepted in full the remarks and 

 deductions accompanying them. 



At least two exceptions to the last 

 statement may be njade. It is refresh- 

 ing to find that two writers, although 

 apparently accepting the other iden- 

 tifications by Squier and Davis, have 

 drawn the line at the toucan. Thus 

 Ran, in The Archfeological Collec- 

 tions of the United States ISTational 

 Museum, pp. AG-il, states that — 



The figure (neither of the writers men. 

 tioned aijpear to have been aware that there 

 was more than one supposed toucan) is not 

 of sufficient distinctness to identify the orig- 

 inal that was before the artist's mind, and it wouhl not be safe, therefore, to make 

 this specimen the subject of far-reaching speculations. 



Further on he adds, " Leavnng aside the more than doubtful toucan, 

 the imitated animals belong, without exception, to the^S^orth American 

 fauna." Barber, also, after taking exception to the idea that the sup- 

 posed toucan carving represents a zygodactylous bird, adds in his arti- 

 cle on Mound Pipes, ]>]i. 280-281 (American Naturalist for April, 1882), 

 " It nmy be asserted with a considerable degree of confidence that no 

 representative of an exclusively exotic fauna figured in the pipe sculpt- 

 ures of the Mound-Builders." 



1 



Fig. 18.— Kti'l-bilied Tcmiaii of Southern 

 Mexico [Rhamphastos carinalus.) 



PAROQUET. 



The presence of a carving of the paroquet in one of the Ohio mounds 

 has been deemed remarkable on .account of the supposed extreme south- 

 ern habitat of that bird. Thus Squier and Davis remark ("Ancient 

 Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," p. 265, Fig. 172), "Among the 

 most spirited and delicately executed specimens of ancient art found in 

 the mounds, is that of the paroquet here presented." * * 



