The _a priori_ probability that the toucan was known to the
Mound-Builders is, of course, much less than that the manatee was, since
no species of toucan occurs farther north than Southern Mexico. Its
distant habitat also militates against the idea that the Mound-Builders
could have acquired a knowledge of the bird from intercourse with
southern tribes, or that they received the supposed toucan pipes by way
of trade. Without discussing the several theories to which the toucan
pipes have given rise, let us first examine the evidence offered as to
the presence in the mounds of sculptures of the toucan.
It is a little perplexing to find at the outset that Squier and Davis,
not content with one toucan, have figured three, and these differing
from each other so widely as to be referable, according to modern
ornithological ideas, to very distinct orders.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Toucan of Squier and Davis.]
The first allusion to the toucan in the Monuments of the Mississippi
Valley is found on page 194, where the authors guardedly remark of a
bird's head in terra cotta (Fig. 79), "It represents the head of a bird,
somewhat resembling the toucan, and is executed with much spirit."
This head is vaguely suggestive of a young eagle, the proportions of the
bill of which, until of some age, are considerably distorted. The
position of the nostrils, however, and the contour of the mandibles,
together with the position of the eyes, show clearly enough that it is a
likeness of no bird known to ornithology. It is enough for our present
purpose to say that in no particular does it bear any conceivable
resemblance to the toucan.
Of the second supposed toucan (Ancient Monuments, p. 260, Fig. 169)
here illustrated, the authors remark:
The engraving very well represents the original, which is
delicately carved from a compact limestone. It is supposed to
represent the toucan--a tropical bird, and one not known to exist
anywhere within the limits of the United States. If we are not
mistaken in supposing it to represent this bird, the remarks made
respecting the sculptures of the manitus will here apply with
double force.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Toucan of Squier and Davis.]
This sculpture is fortunately easy of identification. Among several
ornithologists, whose opinions have been asked, not a dissenting voice
has been heard. The bird is a common crow or a raven, and is one of the
most happily executed of the avian sculptures, the nasal feathers, which
are plainly shown, and the general contour of the bill being truly
corvine. It would probably be practically impossible to distinguish a
rude sculpture of a raven from that of a crow, owing to the general
resemblance of the two. The proportions of the head here shown are,
however, those of the crow, and the question of habitat renders it
vastly more likely that the crow was known to the Mound-Builders of
Ohio than that the raven was. What possible suggestion of a toucan is to
be found in this head it is not easy to see.
Turning to page 266 (Fig. 178) another and very different bird is held
up to view as a toucan.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Toucan of Squier and Davis.]
Squier and Davis remark of this sculpture:
From the size of its bill, and the circumstance of its having two
toes before and two behind, the bird intended to be represented
would seem to belong to the zygodactylous order--probably the
toucan. The toucan (Ramphastos of Lin.) is found on this continent
only in the tropical countries of South America.
In contradiction to the terms of their description their own figure, as
will be noticed, shows _three_ toes in front and two behind, or a total
of five, which makes the bird an ornithological curiosity, indeed.
However, as the cast in the Smithsonian collection shows three toes in
front and one behind, it is probably safe to assume that the additional
hind toe was the result of mistake on the part of the modern artist, so
that four may be accepted as its proper quota. The mistake then
chargeable to the above authors is that in their discussion they
transferred one toe from before and added it behind. In this curious way
came their zygodactylous bird.
This same pipe is figured by Stevens in Flint Chips, p. 426, Fig. 5. The
wood-cut is a poor one, and exhibits certain important changes, which,
on the assumption that the pipe is at all well illustrated by the cast
in the Smithsonian, reflects more credit on the artist's knowledge of
what a toucan ought to look like than on his fidelity as an exact
copyist.
The etchings across the upper surface of the base of the pipe, miscalled
fingers, are not only made to assume a hand-like appearance but the
accommodating fancy of the artist has provided a roundish object in the
palm, which the bird appears about to pick up. The bill, too, has been
altered, having become rounded and decidedly toucan-like, while the tail
has undergone abbreviation, also in the direction of likeness to the
toucan. In short, much that was lacking in the aboriginal artist's
conception towards the likeness of a toucan has in this figure been
supplied by his modern interpreter.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Toucan as figured by Stevens.]
This cut corresponds with the cast in the Smithsonian collection, in
having the normal number of toes, four--three in front and one behind.
This departure from the arrangement common to the toucan family, which
is zygodactylous, seems to have escaped Stevens's attention. At least he
volunteers no explanation of the discrepancy, being, doubtless,
influenced in his acceptance of the bird as a toucan by the statements
of others.
Wilson follows the cut of Squier and Davis, and represents the bird with
five toes, stating that the toucan is "imitated with considerable
accuracy." He adds: "The most important deviation from correctness of
detail is, it has three toes instead of two before, although the two are
correctly represented behind." How Wilson is guided to the belief that
the sculptor's mistake consists in adding a toe in front instead of one
behind it would be difficult to explain, unless, indeed, he felt the
necessity of having a toucan at all hazards. The truth is that, the
question of toes aside, this carving in no wise resembles a toucan. Its
long legs and proportionally long toes, coupled with the rather long
neck and bill, indicate with certainty a wading bird of some kind, and
in default of anything that comes nearer, an ibis may be suggested;
though if intended by the sculptor as an ibis, candor compels the
statement that the ibis family has no reason to feel complimented.
The identification of this sculpture as a toucan was doubtless due less
to any resemblance it bears to that bird than to another circumstance
connected with it of a rather fanciful nature. As in the case of several
others, the bird is represented in the act of feeding, upon what it
would be difficult to say. Certainly the four etchings across the base
of the pipe bear little resemblance to the human hand. Had they been
intended for fingers they would hardly have been made to extend over the
side of the pipe, an impossible position unless the back of the hand be
uppermost. Yet it was probably just this fancied resemblance to a hand,
out of which the bird is supposed to be feeding, that led to the
suggestion of the toucan. For, say Squier and Davis, p. 266:
In those districts (_i.e._, Guiana and Brazil) the toucan was
almost the only bird the aborigines attempted to domesticate. The
fact that it is represented receiving its food from a human hand
would, under these circumstances, favor the conclusion that the
sculpture was designed to represent the toucan.
Rather a slender thread one would think upon which to hang a theory so
far-reaching in its consequences.
Nor was it necessary to go as far as Guiana and Brazil to find instances
of the domestication of wild fowl by aborigines. Among our North
American Indians it was a by no means uncommon practice to capture and
tame birds. Roger Williams, for instance, speaks of the New England
Indians keeping tame hawks about their dwellings "to keep the little
birds from their corn." (Williams's Key into the Language of America,
1643, p. 220.) The Zuñis and other Pueblo Indians keep, and have kept
from time immemorial, great numbers of eagles and hawks of every
obtainable species, as also turkies, for the sake of the feathers. The
Dakotas and other western tribes keep eagles for the same purpose. They
also tame crows, which are fed from the hand, as well as hawks and
magpies. A case nearer in point is a reference in Lawson to the
Congarees of North Carolina. He says, "they are kind and affable, and
tame the cranes and storks of their savannas." (Lawson's History of
Carolina, p. 51.) And again (p. 53) "these Congarees have an abundance
of storks and cranes in their savannas. They take them before they can
fly, and breed them as tame and familiar as a dung-hill fowl. They had a
tame crane at one of these cabins that was scarcely less than six feet
in height."
So that even if the bird, as has been assumed by many writers, be
feeding from a human hand, of which fact there is no sufficient
evidence, we are by no means on this account driven to the conclusion,
as appears to have been believed, that the sculpture could be no other
than a toucan.
As in the Cass of the manatee, it has been thought well to introduce a
correct drawing of a toucan in order to afford opportunity for
comparison of this very striking bird with its supposed representations
from the mounds. For this purpose the most northern representative of
the family has been selected as the one nearest the home of the
Mound-Builders.
The particulars wherein it differs from the supposed toucans are so many
and striking that it will be superfluous to dwell upon them in detail.
They will be obvious at a glance.
Thus we have seen that the sculptured representation of three birds,
totally dissimilar from each other, and not only not resembling the
toucan, but conveying no conceivable hint of that very marked bird,
formed the basis of Squier and Davis' speculations as to the presence of
the toucan in the mounds. These three 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 Archæological 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."