4 BOMBAY DUCKS 



Masius, " is a pleasing idyl. They are chaste, gentle, 

 unsuspecting, full of tender affection, and deserve above 

 all others the epithet of ' the pious birds,' Without 

 guile, like doves, it is said in the Bible. Without guile 

 and free from anger, suffering all, even death, and not 

 once uttering a cry of pain, what other animal may 

 be compared to them ? 



"The dove alone, according to the ancients, is desti- 

 tute of gall ; and in a hundred popular rhymes and 

 love-songs, as well as in the metaphors of the medieval 

 wandering preachers, the praise of her innocence re- 

 sounds." 



This may be taken as a fair statement of popular 

 opinion of the dove. Some people go further. Thus 

 dear old Eliza Cook says : " Linnets teach us how 

 to love, and ring-doves how to pray." Now I do not 

 wish to poke fun at that estimable and well-meaning 

 lady, but I am constrained to say that it is unfortunate 

 that she did not study the ways of the dove a little 

 before penning the above line. Had she but invested 

 eighteenpence in one of the cooing community, she 

 might have said of them : " They teach us how to 

 swear." But then, of course, the question would arise, 

 do men need to be taught that accomplishment ? I am 

 inclined to think that swearers, like poets, are born, not 

 made. 



How delightful is the idea that doves are " free from 

 anger ! " I once knew a dove which was in a rage for a 

 whole week because it had been transferred from one 

 cage to another. It did not approve of the style of 

 architecture of its new habitation, so sat, for the space 



