24 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
resort on the south shore of Big Butte 
des Morts Lake, in Winnebago county. 
Their bodies were about 36 feet long and 
they have a wing,spread of 75 feet. All 
tvo poiTrrrycd tw Ay-ing in a direction 
parallel to the shore of the lake, one 
nearly behind the other. Three bird 
mounds of a somewhat similar shape are 
in a group on the Dewey place at the sta¬ 
tion known as Pishtaka, near Big Bend, 
in Waukesha County. These three 
birds, however, are depicted as flying 
nearly abreast, one wing of each bird 
slightly overlapping the nearest wing of 
its neighbor. Tn Delton Township, on 
the* Sauk County side of the lower Wis¬ 
consin River Dells are three flue closely 
grouped bird effigies. Two of them are 
shown flying in a general southerly and 
the other in a southwesterly direction. 
What might be cpiite appropriately 
called flocks of birds are also to be seen 
in mound groups in various parts of the 
state. Sometimes the birds are depicted 
as flying in the same general direction 
and sometimes as if scattering in various 
directions. Such flocks were reported 
by Rev. S. D. Beet, to occur at Great 
Bend in Waukesha and at Eagle Corn¬ 
ers, in Richland County. Nine birds 
were in the former flock. 
One of the most interesting bird 
mounds in the state is the so-called goose 
effigy at Morrill Springs, on Lake Men- 
dota. A cut of this mound serves as an 
illustration for this article. The long 
tapering head and neck measure 108 
feet, the body 50 feet and the distance 
between the outspread twice crooked 
wings is 135 feet. It is hoped to secure 
the permanent preservation of this re- 
Lour similar effigies were formerly lo¬ 
cated about the Madison lakes. One has 
now been destroyed. Dr. I. A. Lapliam 
shows that several mounds of similar 
form were found by him at Mayville and 
Iloricon. These are probably now de- 
troved. There are a number of other 
c. 
curious types of bird-shaped effigies of 
which a lack of space does not permit 
the author describing at this time. Jt 
will be understood from the foregoing 
that the ancient mound-building Indians 
of Wisconsin were not only very well ac¬ 
quainted with and appreciated the great 
variety of the bird life about them but 
that they undertook in m^ny instances 
to show the birds in some of their well 
known attitudes of flying, soaring, flock¬ 
ing, etc. Could we but understand the 
hidden significance of the curious group¬ 
ing of the bird-shaped mounds, many 
an interesting page might be added to a 
knowledge of our state’s prehistory. 
The animal-shaped mounds of Wiscon¬ 
sin are thought to represent the totems 
or clan emblems of the gentes or clans of 
the tribes who were at one time the own¬ 
ers of the lands now included in our 
state. They were constructed in the vi¬ 
cinity of their villages and camping 
grounds. Other tribes carved their to¬ 
tems upon their houses, canoes and totem 
poles, or painted them upon their tents 
or apparel, but the Wisconsin Indians 
built theirs upon the soil where they 
have endured for hundreds of years as 
memorials of their early sovereignty. 
Archaeologists believe that their authors 
were the ancestors of the present Winne¬ 
bago Indians, a belief which has the 
sunport of Indian tradition and scien¬ 
tific investigation. 
i 11 ark a b! e m on nd. 
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