ity in animal carving has been amazingly overestimated. However just
the first supposition may be, the last is certainly true.

SKILL IN SCULPTURE OF MOUND-BUILDERS.

In considering the degree of skill exhibited by the mound sculptors in
their delineation of the features and characteristics of animals, it is
of the utmost importance to note that the carvings of birds and animals
which have evoked the most extravagant expressions of praise as to the
exactness with which nature has been copied are uniformly those which,
owing to the possession of some unusual or salient characteristic, are
exceedingly easy of imitation. The stout body and broad flat tail of the
beaver, the characteristic physiognomy of the wild cat and panther, so
utterly dissimilar to that of other animals, the tufted head and
fish-eating habits of the heron, the raptorial bill and claws of the
hawk, the rattle of the rattlesnake, are all features which the rudest
skill could scarcely fail to portray.

It is by the delineation of these marked and unmistakable features, and
not the sculptor's power to express the subtleties of animal
characteristics, that enables the identity of a comparatively small
number of the carvings to be established. It is true that the contrary
has often been asserted, and that almost everything has been claimed for
the carvings, in the way of artistic execution, that would be claimed
for the best products of modern skill. Squier and Davis in fact go so
far in their admiration (Ancient Monuments, p. 272), as to say that, so
far as fidelity is concerned, many of them (_i.e._, animal carvings)
deserve to rank by the side of the best efforts of the artist
naturalists in our own day--a statement which is simply preposterous. So
far, in point of fact, is this from being true that an examination of
the series of animal sculptures cannot fail to convince any one, who is
even tolerably well acquainted with our common birds and animals, that
it is simply impossible to recognize specific features in the great
majority of them. They were either not intended to be copies of
particular species, or, if so intended, the artist's skill was wholly
inadequate for his purpose.

Some remarks by Dr. Coues, quoted in an article by E. A. Barber on Mound
Pipes in the American Naturalist for April, 1882, are so apropos to the
subject that they are here reprinted. The paragraph is in response to a
request to identify a bird pipe:

As is