350 The Bird 
this decoration, so protective and yet so beautiful, is 
assumed only during the breeding season, its use is doubt- 
less to aid in attracting the attention of the females. 
Herons and other birds make still another use of their 
wings and the long, tough flight-feathers: as shields for 
parrying the blows of a rival, or to catch the poison of 
a snake when it strikes and thus give an opportunity 
to seize and despatch the reptile. Two Snowy Egrets 
will sometimes fence with each other in play, and use 
beak and wing as a soldier would use sword and shield. 
I once saw the wing of a bird used in an entirely original 
manner—a use peculiar, doubtless, to this individual. 
Several spoonbills suffered severely from the frozen 
ground upon which they were forced to stand, and no 
method of relief was found, except by one of their num- 
ber, who every night stretched one wing beneath him, 
drew up one foot deep into his plumage, and with the 
other stood upon the tips of the primaries. 
Much might be written concerning the swiftness of 
birds’ flight, but so much of exaggeration has entered 
into estimates of this kind that it would be difficult to 
select facts and figures of indisputable verity. However, 
it may be asserted as at least within the actual facts that 
ducks can attain a speed of ninety miles an hour. An 
apparently well-authenticated record of a swallow’s flight 
at Antwerp is as follows: A gentleman arranged a flight 
of homing pigeons from Compiégne to Antwerp,—a dis- 
tance of one hundred and forty-eight miles,—and with the 
pigeons he liberated a swallow captured on her nest under 
the eaves of his house in Antwerp. The swallow, which 
