***** J. 

 Prologue: Why Study Vertebrates? 



On the south rim of the Grand 

 Canyon of* Arizona stands a hotel 

 at which it used to be the custom, 

 and perhaps still is, to entertain 

 the guests with exhibitions of na- 

 tive dances performed in the hotel's 

 courtyard by a group of Hopi 

 Indians. Most spectacular was the 

 "eagle dance." An enormous arti- 

 ficial wing built up of long feathers 

 was attached to each arm of a 

 dancer. The several dancers went 

 through a series of antics, with 

 appropriate flapping of the wings, 

 doing their utmost to simulate the 

 behavior of eagles. In a dramatic 

 dance of South African Bushmen, 

 one of two men impersonates a 

 baboon, the other a dog. The 

 animals light. The two dancers, 



Fig. 1. An eagle dance near Santa Fe. New Mexico. (Courtesy, American IMuseuin 



of Natural History, New York.) 



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