THE PIGEON. 207

decreasing in diameter upwards, but without the conical
- spiracles which we find in those of Persia*.”

The prophet Ezekiel makes use of this gentle bird as a
simile, in foretelling the desolation of Israel : “ But they
that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the moun-
tains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every
one for his iniquity.” The oriental doves harbour much in
the trees round the cities, and even in courts of the houses;
and as they would naturally quit a scene of war and confu-
sion, for the quiet of the mountains, the comparison is very
appropriate for the terrified inhabitants of a besieged city.
The flight of doves, when alarmed, to the crevices of rocks
and mountains, has been often alluded to by poets; thus
Homer describes the flight of Diana from Juno, under the
simile of a dove:

“So when the falcon wings her way above,
To the cleft cavern speeds the gentle dove,
Not fated yet to die.”

“The dove, in Christian art, is the emblem of the Holy
Ghost, and besides its introduction into various subjects
from the New Testament,—as the Annunciation, the Bap-
tism, the Pentecost,—it is placed near certain saints, who

* Pictorial Bible.