! 
UTILITY OF BIRDS IN NATURE. 3 
cannot at its best equal the bird. I once saw a bat make 
seven attempts to catch a moth fluttering along the still sur- 
face of a moonlit river. A Swallow could have seized it at 
once with no perceptible effort. No creature can equal the 
-soaring of the Eagle or Vulture, or that of the Man-o’-War 
Bird as it sails on high above the storm; while the speed 
that the Hummingbird attains is such that the eye can 
scarcely follow its most rapid flight. 
Birds are provided with wings to enable them (1) to pro- 
cure food, (2) to escape their enemies, (3) to migrate. 
All birds have wings, though a few, like the Apteryx, have 
them only in a rudimentary form. Others, like the Penguin 
and the Ostrich, have small wings, but cannot raise them- 
selves in the air. 
All birds that cannot tly, however, are reminders of a past 
age, and are not fitted to live on the same earth with man. 
Such birds are either already extinct or in a fair way to 
become so, either at the hands of man or at the teeth or 
claws of the dogs, cats, or other animals that man introduces. 
Flight alone might save the few that remain. The Great 
Auk, using its wings only in pursuing its prey under water, 
disappeared before the onslaught of the white man; while 
the Loon, flying both under water and above it, still sur- 
vives. 
Birds are pursued by many enemies. Water-fowl fly to 
the water and dive to escape the Hawk or Eagle, and fly to 
the land to escape the shark, alligator, or pike. Sparrows 
fly to the thicket to elude the Hawk, and to the trees to 
avoid the cat. Evidently this great power of flight was given 
to birds to enable them not only to concentrate their forces 
rapidly at a given point, but also to pursue other flying 
creatures. Birds can pursue bats, flying squirrels, flying 
fish, and insects through the air. Bats and insects are their 
only competitors in flight. Comparatively few insects can 
escape birds by flight, and this they do mainly by quick 
dodging and turning. The speed at which birds can fly on 
occasion has seldom been accurately measured. The maxi- 
mum flight velocity of certain wild-fowl is said to be ninety 
miles an hour. Passenger Pigeons killed in the neighbor- 
