1 882.] Mound Pipes. 279 



form, constituting the handle, is wanting. On the upper part of the 

 nose, and on the base, front and back of the neck, hieroglyphical 

 lines are inscribed, which may have possessed some symbolical 

 significance, or perhaps were simply ornamental. In a few exam- 

 ples of pipes of this class, the platforms have been carved in imita- 

 tion of animals. Dr. J. Schneck, of Mount Carmel, Illinois, sends 

 me a sketch of a curious specimen which was found about two feet 

 below the surface of the earth in a mound in Wabash county, 

 111. (Fig. 20). It represents a small bird about the size of, and 

 somewhat resembling, the chimney swallow ( Chcetura pelasgia 

 Steph.), which, in those distant days, attached its nest, doubtless, 

 to the cliffs and rocky crags. The material is a soft, yellow 

 slate ; the bird is represented on its back with wings crossed 

 beneath, the cylindrical bowl rising from the breast, and the 

 smoking orifice passing through the tail. Dr. Elliott Coues, 



to whom I sent a sketch of this pipe, writes : " As is so frequently 

 the probable case in such matters, I am inclined to think the 

 sculptor had no particular bird in mind in executing his rude 

 carving. It is not necessary, or indeed permissible, to suppose 

 that particular species were always intended to be represented. 

 Not unfrequently, the likeness of some marked bird is so good as 

 to be unmistakable, but the reverse is oftener the case ; and in the 

 present instance I can make no more of the carving than you 

 have done ; 'excepting that if any particular species may have 

 been in the carver's mind, his execution does not suffice for its 

 determination." 



Another specimen, in the collection of Mr. N. V. Johnson, of 

 Brookville, Indiana, was found in a marsh a few miles north of 

 that place. The material is a bluish-green stone, very hard and 

 highly polished. Mr. Edgar R. Quick, who sends me a well- 



