to the buzzard possibly, and also to the paroquet. _The majority of
these animals are not known in the United States; some of them are
totally unknown to within any part of the North American
continent._ (Italics of the present writer.) Others may be classed
with the paroquet, which, though essentially a southern bird, and
common in the Gulf, does occasionally make its appearance inland;
and might possibly become known to the untraveled Mound-Builder
among the fauna of his own northern home.

The information contained in the above paragraph relative to the range
of some of the animals mentioned may well be viewed with surprise by
naturalists. To begin with, the jaguar or panther, by which vernacular
names the _Felis onca_ is presumably meant, is not only found in
Northern Mexico, but extends its range into the United States and
appears as far north as the Red River of Louisiana. (See Baird's Mammals
of North America.) Hence a sculptured representation of this animal in
the mounds, although by no means likely, is not entirely out of the
question. However, among the several carvings of the cat family that
have been exhumed from the mounds and made known there is not one which
can, with even a fair degree of probability, be identified as this
species in distinction from the next animal named, the cougar.

The cougar, to which several of the carvings can with but little doubt
be referred, was at the time of the discovery of America and is to-day,
where not exterminated by man, a common resident of the whole of North
America, including of course the whole of the Mississippi Valley. It
would be surprising, therefore, if an animal so striking, and one that
has figured so largely in Indian totemism and folk-lore, should not have
received attention at the hands of the Mound-Builders.