PAIRING. 147 
was shot as soon as possible; but the surviver read- 
ily found a mate, and the mischief went on. After 
some time the new pair were both destroyed, and 
the annoyance ceased. Another instance, I re- 
‘member, of a sportsman, whose zeal for the in- 
crease of his game being greater than his human- 
ity, after pairing time he always shot the male bird 
of every couple of partridges upon his grounds, sup- 
posing that the rivalry of many males interrupted 
the breed. He used to say, that though he had 
widowed the same hen several times, yet he found 
she was still provided with a fresh paramour that 
did not take her away from her usual haunt.”* 
In opposition to this doctrine there is one in- 
stance, which has been celebrated from the earliest 
ages, the turtle-dove, being represented as the very 
_ emblem of conjugal love and fidelity. The dark or 
_ black-coloured turtle-dove, it is said, was employed 
by the Egyptians as the hieroglyphic of chaste wid- 
owhood, it being understood that, when one of a pair 
was killed, the other never joined with a second 
mate. ‘ They be passing chaste,” says Pliny, ‘and 
neither male nor female change their mate, but keep 
together one true unto the other. They abandon 
not their own nests, unless they be in a state of sin- 
gle life or widowhood by death of their fellow. The 
females are very meek and patient; they will en- 
dure and abide their imperious males, notwithstand- 
ing, otherwhiles, they be very churlish unto them, 
offering them wrong and hard measure, so jealous 
be they of the hens, and suspicious, though without 
any cause, for passing chaste and continent by na- 
nure they are.” The. poets follow naturally in the 
same opinion, and hence from Ovid and Dante down 
te our own times, we meet with comparisons and 
allusions thence derived, as if the fact were ascer- 
tain2d beyond question. 
* Nat. Hist. of Se}bourne, letter 34. 
