CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, BLACK WARRIOR RIVER. 139 
prop itself up and thus steady it at its work. This feature would no doubt strike 
the aboriginal eye and thus cause it to attach more importance to the tail of 
the woodpecker than to its wings. 
Among the wonderful objects of wood found by Cushing at the settlement of 
Marco, Island of Marco, one of the Ten Thousand Islands, which lie off the south- 
western Florida coast, is the picture of a bird painted in colors on a tablet of wood. 
Mr. Cushing believes the painting to be that of a jay or kingfisher, * or more prob- 
ably still, of a crested mythic bird or bird-god, combining attributes of both." 
Four contiguous circles in line are represented as leaving the open bill of this bird, 
which Mr. Cushing believes to be speech symbols. 
The ivory-billed. woodpecker was held in high esteem by the aborigines. Its 
head, modelled in gold, has been found in Florida.* Catesby ? tells us that “the 
Bills of these Birds are much valued by the Canada Indians, who make Coronets 
of 'em for their Princes and great warriers, by fixing them round a wreath, with 
their points outward. Тһе Northern Indians having none of these Birds in their 
cold country, purchase them of the Southern People at the price of two, and some- 
times three Buck-skins a Bill." 
We shall now describe our digging at Moundville, with certain details discussed 
in advance, to avoid repetition. 
This work occupied thirty-five days with thirteen trained diggers from our 
boat and five men to supervise. In addition, local help, ten men per day on an 
average, was employed, mainly to fill excavations and to sink trial-holes in the 
summit plateaus of the mounds. Long experience had shown us that square and 
oblong mounds, in the south at least, were not designed primarily as burial mounds, 
although sometimes burials were made іп them, locally, in graves dug from the 
surface. These trial-holes, averaging four feet square and four feet deep, when 
made in sufficient number on the plateau of a mound, were considered to be an 
excellent method of detecting the presence of burials, for, although the entire 
surface of the plateau was not dug through, it was extremely unlikely that skele- 
tons or bundles of bones could all lie in an area not dug into by at least one of a 
number of well distributed shafts. When the presence of human bones was 
detected, more complete methods of investigation were adopted. 
The material of which the mounds were made was clay, clay with admixture 
of sand, and, in places, to a limited extent, almost pure sand. Оп the whole, how- 
ever, the mounds were chiefly of clay with an admixture of sand, often a very small 
percentage. 
Inside as well as outside the circle, оп the level ground, were many sites 
giving evidence of aboriginal occupancy. These sites were more or less thoroughly 
investigated by us by means of trial-holes. These holes were not always as deep 
ота of the American Philosophical Society, Phila, Vol. XXXV, Хо. 153, Plate 
XXXIV, р- 98 et seq. 
? Бап, бенен Report, 1878, р. 299. 
' «The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands," London, 1731, Vol. I, 
p. 16. 
