ree 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 made. It is
refreshing to find that two writers, although apparently accepting the
other identifications by Squier and Davis, have drawn the line at the
toucan. Thus Rau, in The Archaeological Collections of the United States
National Museum, pp. 46-47, states that--

The figure (neither of the writers mentioned appear to have been
aware that there was more than one supposed toucan) is not of
sufficient distinctness to identify the original that was before
the artist's mind, and it would not be safe, therefore, to make
this specimen the subject of far-reaching speculations.

[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Keel-Billed Toucan of Southern Mexico
(_Rhamphastos carinatus_.)]

Further on he adds, "Leaving aside the more than doubtful toucan, the
imitated animals belong, without exception, to the North American
fauna." Barber, also, after taking exception to the idea that the
supposed toucan carving represents a zygodactylous bird, adds in his
article on Mound Pipes, pp. 280-281 (American Naturalist for April,
1882), "It may be asserted with a considerable degree of confidence that
no representative of an exclusively exotic fauna figured in the pipe
sculptures of the Mound-Builders."

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 southern
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."

"The paroquet is essentially a southern bird, and though common along
the Gulf, is of rare occurrence above the Ohio River." The above
language would seem to admit of no doubt as to the fact of the decided
resemblance borne by this carving to the paroquet. Yet the bird thus
positively identified as a paroquet, upon which identification have,
without doubt, been based all the conclusions that have been published
concerning the presence of that bird among the mound sculptures is not
even distantly related to the parrot family. It has the bill of a
raptorial bird, as shown by the distinct tooth, and this, in connection
with the wel