Feet

In their "falcon dancer" the Mississippian Indians seem to have combined symbolic elements of several different creatures into tne image. The bird's tail on the costume appears to be more related to the tail patterns of birds other than the falcon-perhaps the eagle. Falcons and eagles, however, all have four toes and the feet shown on the bird plates all have three toes. The only three-toed bird that had importance to the Mississippians was the red, white, and black woodpecker (Dryocophs pileatus, Pileated Woodpecker), another one of their war symbols.