8 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

of Babylon, under the image of “‘s great eagle with great
wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had divers
colours.” Job’s description is almost identical with that
of the Greek poet: “Doth the eagle mount up at thy
command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and
abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the
strong place. From thence she seeketh her prey, and her
eyes behold afar off.”

Homer’s description of the dove is a beautiful illustration
of the gentle bird so often used as a type in the Scriptures.

«The mast, which late a first-rate galley bore,
The hero fixes in the sandy shore ;
To the tall top a milk-white dove they tie,
The trembling mark at which their arrows fly.
2 * s s s s *
The dove, in airy circles as she wheels,
Amid the clouds, the piercing arrow feels ;
Quite thro’ and thro’ the point its passage found,
” And at his feet fell bloody to the ground.
The wounded bird, ere yet she breathed her last,
With flagging wings slighted on the mast ;
A moment hung, and spread her pinions there,
Then sudden dropped, and left her life in air.”

Poets of all ages have celebrated the flight of the dove as
peculiarly graceful. Virgil says :—