THE PIGEON. 208

the whole genus. Virgil refers to this well-known trait
in the following lines; and his mention of the dove, being,
like that quoted above, poetical and not systematic, the
species is no more defined than in the still more exquisite
poetry of the Hebrew psalmist.
“ In her neat within some cavern hung,

The dove sits trembling o’er her callow young,

Till roused at last, by some impetuous shock,

She starts surprised, and beats around the rock ;

Then to the open fields for refuge flies,

And the free bird expatiates in the skies ;

Her pinions poised, through liquid sir she springs,

And smoothly glides, nor moves her levell’d wings.””

The next mention of our beautiful favourite is in the
68th Psalm, where the description may still apply to several
of the Eastern specimens of this genus: “Though ye have
lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove
covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.”
The plumage of many doves may well be compared to silver
in its chaste elegance, and others have the lustrous bril-
liancy of gold ; but this difficult text has had many different
explanations, and some think the expression refers to a
standard, bearing a dove as a symbol.

The Turtle Doves, which are mentioned in so many