s. If, for instance, they are compared with the
figures of the six designs of the upper surface of the vase shown in
plate CXXXV, _b_, we note especially this resemblance. While,
therefore, it can hardly be said there is absolute proof that these
highly conventionalized figures always represent birds, we may, I
think, be sure that either the bird or the moth or butterfly is
generally intended.

There are several modifications of these highly conventionalized
figures of birds which may be mentioned, one of the most interesting
of which is figured in plate CXXXIX, _f_. In this representation the
two posterior triangular extensions of the body are modified into
graceful curves, and the tail-feathers are simply parallel lines. The
figure in this instance is little more than a trifid appendage to a
broad band across the inner surface of the food bowl. In addition to
this highly conventionalized bird figure, however, there are two
crosses which represent stars. In this decoration all resemblance to a
bird is lost, and it is only by following the reduction of parts that
one is able to identify this geometric design with the more elaborate
pictures of mythic birds. When questioned in regard to the meaning of
this symbol, the best informed Hopi priests had no suggestion to
offer.

In all the figures of birds thus far considered, the head, with one or
two exceptions, is represented or indicated by symbolic markings. In
that which decorates the vessel shown in plate CXL, _a_, we find a new
modification; the wings, instead of being attenuated into a diametric
line or band, are in this case curved to form a loose spiral. Between
them is the figure of a body and the three tail-feathers, while the
triangular extensions which generally indicate the posterior of the
body are simply two rounded knobs at the point of union of the wings
and tail. There is no indication of a head.

The modifications in the figure of the bird shown in the last
mentioned pictograph, and the highly conventionalized forms which the
wings and other parts assume, give me confidence to venture an
interpretation of a strange figure shown in plate CXLI, _a_. This
picture I regard as a representation of a bird, and I do so for the
following resemblances to figures already studied. The head of the
bird, as has been shown, is often replaced by a terraced rain-cloud
symbol. Such a figure occurs in the pictograph under consideration,
where it occupies the position of