CHAP. I.]

BEAUTY OF THE COLUMBIDA.

7

have been hopelessly baffled, had the young Pigeons required to be tended, and fed, and led about, and guarded like little Chickens, for months after their birth; in this case, there would have been no living clouds consisting of millions of individuals, however numerous the hatch from each female might have been; but in the existing wise arrangement there is no waste, either of time or energetic force; the coupling of a single male with a single female proves to be an economical plan, instead of the reverse, as those might be apt to fancy on whose thoughts the polygamous domestic Fowl so readily obtrudes itself: the helplessness and indolence of the young for a time, are only made the means of their sooner becoming able not merely to shift for themselves, but, in their own rapidly-arriving turn, to rear young for themselves. The details to be hereafter given will show how completely and effectually this great end is carried out with the least possible expenditure of time and power. The forcing by gardeners, and the fattening by graziers, indeed all our artificial means of obtaining extra produce, take very second rank when we compare them with the process by which a couple of eggs, in the course of a few weeks, are nursed into a pair of perfect creatures, male and female, able to traverse long distances in search of subsistence, and to fulfil the grand law, “increase and multiply."

This alone would be wonderful; but to the innate energies implanted for useful and necessary ends, we find superadded a further quality-beauty. To the Deity alone do works of supererogation belong: He gives what is needful with a paternal liberality, and then is lavish of his bounty, and bestows ornament and

decoration upon his creatures.

There can scarcely be

a doubt that many of the appendages to the plumage of birds, not to say a word about brilliant colours, are given not for any use, or to serve the performance of any function in the economy of the creatures, but solely for appearance sake, a fact of which they themselves manifest a consciousness. Innumerable instances of this might be adduced, but a less well-known example is seen in the brilliant assemblage of Hummingbirds collected by Mr. Gould, and now under the course of illustration by that gentleman, with his usual great artistic and ornithological ability. One, perhaps several, species, in addition to the parts which usually reflect the most dazzling and glancing hues, has the very under tail-coverts metallic. In most birds, colours so disposed would be little if at all observed; but in these Humming-birds the flight is so abrupt, and the motions so sharply checked and reversed, very much by the action of the tail, that the metallic feathers are suddenly seen, like a momentary star, which as suddenly vanishes, and which marks, by its appearance and extinction, the sparkling turns in the zig-zag course which the flashing bird pursues through the sunshine.

And the Pigeons, too, have their amethystine necks, and their metallic plumage, either whole or partial; sometimes a complete panoply of blazing scales, occasionally a few patches of bronze and tinsel on the wings. Crests, too, in others, are added to give grace to the head, and voices, if not melodious, yet most expressive, which is better far. In form and motion we have everything that is charming and attractive, either in repose or activity. Even in the individuals

CHAP. I.]

EARLIEST HISTORY.

9

destined for homely uses there is so much that is lovely and pleasing, that we often spare their lives in order to continue a little longer to admire their beauty and protect their gentleness. Each in its kind has its own special grace: there is the decorous Nun, the grotesquely-strutting Powter, the comely Turbit, the gay and frisky Tumbler, the stately Swan-like Fantail. In any account of so varied and yet so closely related a family, it will clearly be advisable to endeavour to produce something like a historic sketch, before proceeding to details respecting either distinct species or their supposed varieties.

The first mention of Pigeons to be met with is found in the Holy Scriptures.

66

And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. And he sent forth a raven, which went to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark; for the waters were upon the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more."*

* Genesis viii. 6-12.

We have here quoted the very earliest record of the Dove. The species mentioned is without doubt the blue Rock Dove, one of our common Dovehouse Pigeons *. The olive-branch, say Biblical notes, probably from some obscure rumour of this event, has generally been the emblem of peace; but, what is curious, we hear that in countries where scarcely the remotest tradition can have penetrated, a like token is similarly recognised. The sparse foliage of many Australian shrubs bears a faint resemblance to that peculiar to the olive, both in its sombre hue, and the little shade it affords. And Captain Sturt, when exploring the course of the Murray River, found that tribes of natives, who, if they had heard of white men, had evidently never before seen any, traditionally, or perhaps instinctively, comprehended the spirit of peace denoted by the offered branch.

In ancient Egypt, on the cessation of war, the troops were required to attend during the performance of prescribed religious ceremonies, when each soldier carried in his hand a twig of some tree, probably olive, with the arms of his peculiar corps. "A judicious remark has been made by Mr. Bankes respecting the choice of the olive as the emblem of peace. After the devastation of a country by hostile invasion, and the consequent, neglect of its culture, no plantation requires a longer period to restore its previously flourishing condition than the olive grove; and this tree may therefore have been appropriately selected as the representative of

*

In the "Hierozoici" of Bochart, lib. i. cap. vi., is a laborious essay, "De Columbâ Noachi, et de Columbæ specie quæ in Baptismo Christi apparuit."

CHAP. I.]

ARAB LEGEND.

11

peace *. There is, however, reason to suppose that its emblematic character did not originate in Greece, but that it dated from a far more remote period; and the tranquillity and habitable state of the earth were announced to the ark through the same token.

"The Arabs have an amusing legend respecting the Dove or Pigeon. The first time it returned with the olive-branch, but without any indication of the state of the earth itself; but on its second visit to the ark, the red appearance of its feet proved that the red mud on which it had walked was already freed from the waters; and to record the event, Noah prayed that the feet of these birds might for ever continue of that colour, which marks them to the present day. The similarity of the Hebrew words 'adoom,' red, and

6

admeh,' earth,

Adm,' Adam, is remarkable. A 'man' is still called 'A'dam' in Turkish."+

The learned Bochart correctly remarks, that the Holy Scriptures rarely mention the clean birds, with the sole exception of Doves and Pigeons, respecting which more particulars are to be found than of all the others put together. The extreme antiquity of their domestication may be inferred from their employment in the patriarchal sacrifices; indeed it appears to be coeval with that of the ox and the sheep: thus, in Genesis xv. 9, the command given to Abraham is, "Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a

'Paciferæque manu ramum prætendit olivæ."-Virg. Æn. viii. 118.

"Resolve me, strangers, whence, and what you are;

Your business here; and bring you peace or war?'

High on the stern Eneas took his stand,

And held a branch of olive in his hand,

While thus he spoke "

Sir J. G. Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. pp. 401, 2.