518 PLTNY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book X. 



then afterwards, to make some atonement, he falls to bill- 

 ing, and by way of pressing his amorous solicitations, sidles 

 round and round the female with his feet. They both of them 

 manifest an equal degree of affection for their offspring ; in- 

 deed, it is not unfrequently that this is a ground for correction, 

 in consequence of the female being too slow in going to her 

 young. When the female is sitting, the male renders her every 

 attention that can in any way tend to her solace and comfort. 

 The first thing that they do is to eject from the throat some 

 saltish earth, which they have digested, into the mouths of 

 the young ones, in order to prepare them in due time to re- 

 ceive their nutriment. It is a peculiarity of the pigeon and 

 of the turtle-dove, not to throw back the neck when drinking, 

 but to take in the water at a long draught, just as beasts of 

 burden do. 



(35.) We read in some authors that the ring-dove lives so 

 long as thirty years, and sometimes as much as forty, without 

 any other inconvenience than the extreme length of the claws, 

 which with them, in fact, is the chief mark of old age ; they 

 can be cut, however, without any danger. The voice of all 

 these birds is similar, being composed of three notes, and then 

 a mournful noise at the end. In winter they are silent, and they 

 only recover their voice in the spring. Jligidius expresses it 

 as his opinion that the ring-dove will abandon the place, if she 

 hears her name mentioned under the roof where she is sitting 

 on her eggs : they hatch their young just after M the summer 

 solstice. Pigeons and turtle-doves live eight years. 



(36.) The sparrow, on the other hand, which has an equal 

 degree of salaciousness, is short-lived in the extreme. It is 

 said that the male does not live beyond a year ; and as a ground 

 for this belief, it is stated that at the beginning of spring, the 

 black marks are never to be seen upon the beak which began 

 to appear in the summer. The females, however, are said 

 to live somewhat longer. 



Pigeons have even a certain appreciation of glory. There 

 is reason for believing that they are well aware of the colours 

 of their plumage, and the various shades which it presents, and 

 even in their very mode of flying they court our applause, as 

 they cleave the air in every direction. It is, indeed, through 



55 See B. xviii. c. 68 ; where lie says that tlie summer solstice is past at 

 the time of the incubation. 



