The feathers of birds are used for pillows and beds, for feather dusters, and in various ways for ornament. Except in the case of the ostrich, however, the value of the feathers of domesticated birds is so small that no one grows birds primarily for their feathers. On the other hand, those who keep birds for pleasure find their greatest enjoyment in breeding them with colors and markings difficult to produce. Choice specimens of fancy-bred birds bring prices many times greater than the value of their flesh and eggs for food and of their feathers for use or ornament. Fancy feathers have no more value than others except on the living birds. While those who keep birds for pleasure nowadays give most attention to breeding fancy stock for exhibition, several kinds of pigeons are kept to entertain by their flying performances; and--outside of the limited class of those who breed them especially for exhibition--canaries are valued according to ability to sing. The brutal sport of cockfighting was a popular pastime with our ancestors until prohibited by law, and is still prevalent in many lands. In early times birds of prey were captured when very young and carefully trained to hunt for their masters. Under the feudal system there were regulations prescribing the kinds of birds which different classes of men might use in this way: the eagle and vulture were for emperors only; the gyrfalcon for kings; the lesser falcons for nobles; the harrier for esquires; the merlin for ladies; the goshawk for yeomen; the kestrel for servants; the sparrow hawk for priests. Much of the value of various kinds of poultry comes from their ability to destroy insects which damage vegetation, and to maintain themselves on these and on foods not available for the larger domestic mammals. The services of poultry in this respect being limited to those insects that can be secured from the ground, and to areas on which the birds can live safely and do no damage to crops, we are dependent upon wild aërial birds to keep insect life in check on trees and high bushes and on land not occupied by poultry. =Place of wild birds in civilization.= As no insect-eating aërial birds have been domesticated, the preservation of wild birds that destroy insects is of as much importance to man as the production of domestic birds. Indeed, the wild birds are much more valuable to us in the wild state than they would be if domesticated.