or Zoological Recollections, 407 



and innocence *, and has moreover been early employed as a 

 carrier. The first person that ever made this use of the 

 pigeon appears to be Noah, who despatched one from the 

 windows of the ark, in order to ascertain whether the waters 

 of the deluge had subsided. When it was nearly time for 

 the patriarch to quit the ark, the dove returned with an olive 

 leaf in her bill, as a token of reconciliation between the 

 offended majesty of heaven and the sons of men ; and, on 

 being sent forth a third time, she returned no more. (Genesis, 

 viii. 8 — 12.) In the book of Leviticus, Moses commanded 

 that for a sin-offering a man should bring a lamb or a kid, 

 the one the type of the Lamb of God, and the other emblem- 

 atical of the great scape-goat of mankind ; but, should he be 

 disabled by poverty from offering either of these, the remain- 

 ing means of atonement for the sinner was " a pair of turtle 

 doves, or two young pigeons.'* (Leviticus, v. 6, 7.) Our Sa- 

 viour beautifully alludes to the gentle disposition of the dove, 

 when he cautions his disciples on this wise, " Be ye therefore 

 wise as serpents, but harmless as doves." (Matthew, x. 16.) 

 And the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Redeemer, at 

 his baptism, was in the form of a dove. (Matthew, iii. 16.) 



The term of pigeoning, or over-reaching, a person, origi- 

 nated in a practice common amongst sharpers, at a period 

 when the qualities of this bird as a carrier were not generally 

 known, of employing pigeons for the rapid transmission of 

 news connected with the sporting world. A rogue by these 

 means was accurately informed of the result of any important 

 match for some time previous to its being communicated by 

 the accustomed channel, and was thus enabled to lay his bets 

 with certainty; and the phrase has been carried still farther 

 by the application of the term of plucking a pigeon, meaning 

 the depriving a person of all that he is worth by sharping. 



* [Shenstone, in his pathetic "Pastoral Ballad, in Four Parts," has these 

 delightful lines : — 



" I have found out a gift for my fair ; 



I have found where the wood pigeons breed ; 

 But let me that plunder forbear. 



She will say 't was a barbarous deed. 



For he ne'er could be true, she averr'd. 



Who could rob a poor bird of its young ; 

 And I loved her the more, when I heard 



Such tenderness fall from her tongue. 



I have heard her with sweetness unfold 



How that pity was due to a dove ; 

 That it ever attended the bold. 



And she call'd it the sister of love."] 

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