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chiefly of the long-tail plumes of this species of insect-feeding 
forest-haunting birds. The traces of such a fringe of long-tailed 
Quetzal feathers are preserved on an ancient Mexican shield 
formed of the interlaced bamboo strips and decorated with 
featherwork. <A facsimile of such a shield was also exhibited, 
one described and figured by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall in a memoir on 
Ancient Mexican shields, in a recent number of the Archiv fiir 
Ethnologie. This shield was rediscovered by her at the castle of 
Ambras, near Innspruck, in Tyrol, and once formed part of the 
famous “‘ Ambras collection ” of historical armour belonging to 
the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, nephew of the Emperor - 
Charles V. This collection is now removed to the Imperial 
Ethnographical Museum in Vienna, where the famous “ feather 
head-dress of the time of Montezuma,” also described by Mrs. 
Nuttall, is now preserved. There is documentary evidence that 
both feather head-dress and the shield in question were sent by 
Cortes from Mexico as presents to the Emperor Charles V. This 
shield is one of four others extant in the Museums of Mexico City, 
Stuttgart, London and Vienna. It is the only one having any 
claim to be considered as the shield of Montezuma, as it could 
only have- been used by a personage of high rank in ancient 
Mexico. The use of the head-dress shields, and military accou- 
trements in general being regulated and restricted to different 
grades of the military ranks. 
From the large numbers of various kinds of shields figured 
and described in native MSS. and the “ Spanish Inventories,” 
it is further evident that the Ancient Mexicans had independently 
developed, long anterior to the epoch of the Spanish Conquest, an 
heraldic system with emblems to blazon forth or proclaim their 
individual prowess in battle. Some of these emblems were the 
images of the labrets or lip ornaments and nose crescents of gold 
granted by their ruler as distinctions to these semi-barbaric 
warriors and actually worn by them. They were granted in 
recognition of gallant deeds of arms performed in religious 
inter-tribal wars, capturing their foes alivein order that they might 
be offered as living sacrifices to the gods of the Aztecs. These 
crescents quartered on the “ field” of the shields recall the 
badge of augmentation on the coat armour of ‘‘ The Pelhams ” 
in commemoration of the ancestral share in the capture of King 
John of France at Poictiers. “ A highly well-born ” German 
family also quarters a negro’s head to record their ancestors 
capture of a black Princess in the Crusades. The further 
discovery that the ancient Mexicans depicted symbols on their 
