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 

 to our own times, we meet with comparisons and 

 allusions thence derived, as if the fact were ascer- 

 tained beyond question. 



* Nat. Hist, of Selboume, letter 34. 



