218 The Birds of VirgiL 



and in the Aeneid I make use of Mr. Mackail's 

 prose translation, which I prefer on the whole to 

 any poetical version I know. One passage from 

 the Eclogues I have translated myself. 



The first birds we find mentioned in the poems 

 are the Pigeons, and we may as well begin with 

 them as with any other. Meliboeus tells Tityrus 

 that the farm to which he is returned after a long 

 exile the same farm which the poet himself lost 

 and found again shall yield him much true com- 

 fort and delight, even though he find it overgrown 

 with reeds, and spoilt with the stones and mud of 

 overflowing Mincius : 



Ncc tamen interea raucae, tua cura, palumbes, 

 Nee gemere aeria cessabit turtur ab ulmo. 1 



Here two distinct species are clearly meant by 

 the words palumbes and turtur. About the latter 

 of these there is no difficulty ; from all that is tolcl 

 us of it we gather that it is the same bird which 

 the French still call tourterelle and the Italians 

 fort ore I la, and which we know as the Turtle- 



1 And all the while, with hollow voice, thine own 

 Loved wood-pigeon shall soothe thee, nor alone, 

 For from the lofty elm the dove shall ever moan. 



