Thanks to Tom Bain for sharing the image of the Hopewell effigy. It does
resemble a falcon more than some of the others claimed to represent this
bird. The legs, for example, look heavily feathered, but of course the
only way you can include bird legs in carved stone is to make them
sturdy, even if that isn't representational. The eye looks way too small
for a falcon, and the wings/tail way too short. There is a lot of
overlap with the look of a Carolina parakeet--a topic discussed here
before--and systematists have recently suggested that the Falconidae and
the Psittacidae are far more closely related than was once thought, with
falcons perhaps sharing more anatomical features with parrots than with
hawks.
        A hundred or more years ago, what were then called "great-footed hawks"
were rare migrants inland, and uncommon migrants along the Erie shore in
Sept-Oct and March-Apr. Audubon attests to their early rarity
http://www.audubon.org/bird/boa/F2_G9b.html  . I imagine they were even
less often seen hundreds of years earlier in the heavily-wooded riparian
areas of Ohio favored by the Hopewells (yes, I know they cleared land,
but the clearings were disjunct and agricultural fields were not very
good falcon hunting grounds). I doubt that people living inland, armed
with arrows and without binoculars, were able to become very familiar
with this very swift bird of passage, that bred far to the north and
wintered along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Falcons probably rocketed
through Hopewell territory twice a year, picking off ducks or shorebirds
or passenger pigeons along rivers or over the vast forests. Perhaps
these rapid migrations and swift dramatic kills stirred admiration among
native peoples, perhaps not, but other than owls, which are well
represented, there don't seem to be all that many other raptors--hawks,
shrikes, ospreys, kites, eagles, etc.--even those present all year
round--represented in their artworks. Perhaps Hopewell artists, hunters
though they may have been in part, were agriculturalists not besotted
with raptors as the birds most worthy of veneration. In view of this, it
would be difficult to explain why peregrines would prevail in
representations. To do so, one would have to carefully eliminate the
Carolina parakeet as the their object. Parakeets must have been very
familiar birds--colorful, noisy, gregarious, present year-long, perhaps
even pets kept in the villages--in the Hopewell habitats. Sure the US is
devoted to the eagle (which is technically a raptor but usually prefers
a nice dead fish) as a cultural symbol. But other cultures use
non-raptorial birds, such as the French coq d'or. Why does this effigy,
like the other "falcons" we hear about, not represent a parakeet?
Bill Whan
Columbus


]Tom Bain wrote:
> Peregrine advocates,
>
> Here's another Peregrine Falcon reference from Ohio's past. Ohio
> Native American knowledge of falcons is cast in stone, well, carved
> in stone, in this example. Follow this link to see this Stone-falcon,
> an effigy pipe interpreted as a stylized peregrine, collected long
> ago in southern Ohio, carved from a lump of "pipestone" mined from
> Ohio's most celebrated source for this material, Feurt Hill, near
> Portsmouth, Ohio in Scioto County.
>
> http://www.explorehistory.org/cds/March/materials/act25.htm
>
> Of course, this effigy does not establish the peregrine as a native
> Ohio breeding bird. Peregrines migrate and so do people. Native
> American Ohioans traded widely and Feurt Hill pipestone was a trade
> item. Native Americans travelled widely on land and water using the
> Ohio River and its tributaries and a vast network of "highways" so
> they could have seen peregrines elsewhere. I'm sure these magnificent
> falcons inspired the first peoples of Ohio Country, then, just as
> they inspire modern Ohioans, today.
>
> Tom Bain The Central Ohio Clayey Till Plain Delaware County
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Ohio birds
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Bain Sent:
> Wednesday, July 14, 2010 10:21 AM To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [Ohio-birds] Stone-falcon
>
> More for peregrine fans and history buffs,
>
> I've seen Kathi's resource (thanks, Kathi) and others too, from
> Charlevoix (early 1720's) to Audubon using confusing nomenclature
> later interpreted variously by different workers. Stone-falcon has
> been interpreted as Merlin and peregrine, both, I have concluded. Of
> course, we can't be certain from this single note or from a
> collection of similar notes that peregrines belong on Ohio's breeding
> list. We cannot be certain because our earliest recollections are
> very limited and are not generally accepted as reliable, and because
> there has been a long confusing nomenclature evolution with multiple
> cultural influences. I encourage readers to discover the old stuff
> and enjoy the reading and the confusion. Many observers offer a list
> of birds and by process of elimination, you will decide for yourself
> which is which and which are fanciful. Aside: Samuel Eliot Morrison's
> "Northern Voyages" describes fanciful accounts of living mammoths
> described by lost sailors wandering the Southeastern US in the 16th
> Century! Charlevoix recounts native traditions of an elk (meaning
> moose--that nomenclature thing again) equipped with a floppy snout
> longer than a man's arm and with fingers at the tip--sounds like an
> elephant to me--real--fanciful, cultural memory? Both early writers
> offer us notes about our birds, too (Begin your exploration with easy
> ready; John Bakeless,
> http://www.amazon.com/America-Seen-Its-First-Explorers/dp/0486260313/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1279115947&sr=1-3
>
>
> Peregrine Falcons using limiting landscapes mainly used ecotones such
> as lake shore and riparian corridor to ply their trade where tall
> bluffs and cliffs afforded long views of passing prey and
> gravity-protected nest ledges. These were not common places in Ohio,
> then or now, but we have a few. If I can find it, I will post a note
> about the "hawk'O the rocks" (something like that) found on "Hanging
> Rock", a 400 foot relief sandstone exposure overlooking the Ohio
> river near Ironton, Ohio, recorded in the early "Ironton Register".
> One Reverend John Kelly, an early pioneer, before the iron industry
> changed the ecology of the Hanging Rock Iron Region, offered his
> interviewer a list of familiar bird species and gives us the "hawk'O
> the rocks" to contemplate--peregrine--Merlin? I dream of a native
> Ohio Duck Hawk ripping through currents of riparian wind, a dull thud
> and puff of fine green feathers, a down-loop and grasping of the
> hammered Carolina Parakeet followed by a bee-line carry to Hanging
> Rock, and a "kakking" response from a large female peregrine on
> feeble downy young on a sandy Ohio ledge--never again.
>
> The peregrines plying their trade in our urban 'heat islands' today
> are an unholy mix of subspecies (including European blood, according
> to my peregrine research friends) unlike our original large eastern
> subspecies. Our original "duck hawk" is lost in time like tears in
> rain, Thanks to DDT and a consuming obsession with mosquito-free
> living during the 1950's and 60's. Today's mixed birds behave
> differently, too. Nevertheless, I get calls from dear friends
> annually about the return of "their" peregrines. They become excited
> about all birds when they win a glace of a stooping heat island
> peregrine. That's important!
>
> Tom Bain The Central Ohio Clayey Till Plain Delaware County, Ohio
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Ohio birds
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathi Hutton
> Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 8:46 AM To:
> [log in to unmask] Subject: [Ohio-birds] Stone-falcon
>
> I was fascinated by Tom Bain's historic reference to a bird pf prey
> referred to as a stone-falcon:  "Of other birds of prey, there are to
> be found here the hawk, the stone-falcon, that remains near the
> rocks..."  and did a little Google search.  From what I read, Stone
> falcon is an old British term for Merlin, not Peregrine.  I found it
> at this site:  http://www.birdforum.net/archive/index.php/t-6640.html
> along with a number of other out-dated bird names, including Wood
> Pie, Summer Snipe, and Windhover.
>
> ~Kathi Hutton Clermont County, SW Ohio

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