206 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

remind the reader of the passenger pigeons of America:
“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to
their windows?” ‘This text has been well illustrated by
Morier, in his ‘Second Journey.’ ‘In the environs of the
city (Ispahan) to the westward, near Zainderood, are many
pigeon-houses, erected at a distance from habitations, for
the purpose of collecting pigeons’ dung for manure. They
are large round towers, rather broader at the bottom than
the top, and crowned by conical spiracles, thtough which
the pigeons descend. Their interior resembles a honey-
comb, pierced with a thousand holes, each of which forms
a snug retreat for a nest. The extraordinary flights of
pigeons which I have seen upon one of these dwellings afford,
perhaps, a good illustration of the passage in Isaiah lx.,
‘Who are they that fly as a cloud,’ etc. Their great num-
bers, and the compactness of their mass, literally looked like
a cloud at a distance, and obscured the sun in their pas-
sage.” What gives an additional value to this illustration,
is the probability that similar dove-houses were in use
among the Hebrews ; for they certainly were so among their
Egyptian neighbours, as we see by the ancient paintings,
and in the mosaic pavement at Preeneste, where the dove-
cotes are such large round towers as Morier describes,