In collecting numbers of these unfinished bird-stones, my object was to prove that these slender, delicate objects did not indicate European knowledge or influence, but were wrought after much labor from ordinary stone by prehistoric man. None of them show the marks of steel cutting-tools. Fig. 400 is the roughest one and yet the ears or eyes stand out in relief. Fig. 399 is interesting in that it shows three on which the result of pecking and battering is in evidence. The one to the left, lower row, has been pecked, and ground, and was in process of being polished when the work ceased.
Fig. 407. (S. 1–2.) Collection of Leslie W. Hills, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Fig. 401, Andover collection, found in Ohio, is a large bird-stone about five inches in length. The marks of the flint cutting-tool or of the hard grained rubbing-stone, which cut the softer surface of the slate, are still apparent. Fig. 404 presents various bird-stones, both rare and common forms, with and without ears. These are found long and slender, short and thick, almost as low as the bar-amulet, and also so high that they merge into other effigies. Six bird-stones from the collection of Mr. Leslie W. Hills of Fort Wayne, Indiana, are shown in Fig. 407.
Fig. 408. (S. 3–5.) “This specimen is from western New York. It is made in the form of a bird which from the number of similar specimens have given the name to this class. The eyes are represented by great protuberances, which must have greatly increased the difficulty of manufacture. It is made from a boulder or large piece, and while the material is hard, it is not rough but rather fragile. It could not be chipped like flint nor whittled like soapstone, but must have been hammered or pecked into shape and afterwards ground to its present form, then polished until it is as smooth as glass. A consideration of the conditions demonstrates the difficulty of making this object and the dexterity and the experienced working required.”[[1]] Material: diorite with feldspar crystals. Smithsonian collection. Otis M. Bigelow’s collection, Baldwinsville.
The bird-stones with projection on either side, which by some are called ears, and by others eyes, are quite frequently found in the eastern United States, and Canada. An unusual one is illustrated in Fig. 402, this having one button-shaped knob on the top of the head. Figs. 406 and 409 from the collection of Mr. Hills illustrate bird-stones about one third size, from various portions of Indiana, Ohio, and Canada; an unfinished one in Fig. 409 (number on its side 561) is interesting in that the bill or nose is unusually long, the head high, and the body quite short. One beautiful specimen owned by Mr. George Little of Xenia, Ohio, is illustrated in Fig. 410, and the specimen is turned in Fig. 411 so that the perforations are visible. The neck of this is unusually long. It will be observed that all of these bird-stones have flat bases; none of the bases are round.
In Figs. 404 to 411 are presented bird-stones, Class I, divisions A and B. Naturally, there are more of plain bird-stones (A) than those with large projecting ears, or elaborate heads. It will be observed that the width of the tail varies, being long and narrow in some, short and slightly flaring in others, and in still others broad, or fan-shaped. Sometimes the eye is very small, as in the lower left-hand specimen, Fig. 405. Or it may be sunken, several of which are shown in Fig. 409. But usually it is worked in high relief.
There are presented, all told, in this chapter, sixty bird-stones. It would be possible for me to present ten times this number. There are included in the series numbers of effigy-like objects that might not be classed by other observers as bird-stones. For instance, the central specimen, top row, of Fig. 405.
The bird-stones are very interesting and unique objects and the range in them is considerable. Sometimes they are almost square, as is seen in the central specimen, lower row, Fig. 405. Again, the head is a prominent feature, as is observed in the lower one in Fig. 409, and the body is of secondary consideration. A group of these stones from the Andover collection is shown in Fig. 404. The very small bird-stone in the upper row to the left is half size of the original, as are the others. This is the smallest bird-stone, the genuineness of which is beyond question, brought to my attention. Just below it is a peculiarly straight effigy from Tennessee, which is almost bar-amulet in shape, and marks the merging of the bird-stone into the bar-amulet. Fig. 408 is an expanded-wing type of unusual beauty. Fig. 405, from the collection of W. A. Holmes, Chicago, shows typical bird-stones, with an unusual one, almost like a frog, and shown in the centre at the top. Next to it to the left is a short stone, hardly bird-like in character, of which a few have been found in the United States. Fig. 403, from the collection in the Provincial Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, presents at the top a stone as much bar-amulet as bird in character, and also a stone at the bottom in the centre of which is worked a projection or knob.