92 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the 

 natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling 

 of her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, 

 Lord, what musick hast thou provided for the Saints 

 in Heaven, when thou affordest bad men such musick 

 on Earth ! 



And this makes me the less to wonder at the many 

 Aviaries in Italy, or at the great charge of Varro his 

 Aviarie, the ruins of which are yet to be seen in Rome^ 

 and is still so famous there, that it is reckoned for one 

 of those notables which men of foreign nations either 

 record, or lay up in their memories when they return 

 from travel. 



This for the birds of pleasure, of which very much 

 more might be said. My next shall be of birds of po- 

 litical use; I think 'tis not to be doubted that Swallows 

 have been taught to carry letters between two armies. 

 But 'tis certain that when the Turks besieged Malta or 

 Rhodes, I now remember not which it was y Pigeons are 

 then related to carry and recarry letters : And Mr. G. 

 Sandys *, in his Travels, relates it to be done betwixt 

 Aleppo and Babylon. But if that be disbelieved, it is 

 not to be doubted that the Dove was sent out of the ark 

 by Noah, to give him notice of land, when to him all 

 appeared to be sea> and the Dove proved a faithful and 

 comfortable messenger. And for the sacrifices of the 

 law, a pair of Turtle-doves, or young Pigeons, were as 

 well accepted as costly Bulls and Rams. And when 

 God would feed the Prophet Elijah, 1 Kin. 17. 6. 

 after a kind of miraculous manner, he did it by Ra- 

 vens, who brought him meat morning and evening. 

 .Lastly, the Holy Ghost, when he descended visibly 

 upon our Saviour, did it by assuming the shape of a 

 Dovet. And, to conclude this part of my discourse, 



* Mr. George Sandys, a very pious, learned, and accomplished gen- 

 tleman, was the youngest son of Dr. Edwin Sandys, Abp. of York. He 

 published his Travels to the Holy Land, Egypt ', and elsewhere, in folio, 

 1615; and made an excellent Paraphrase on the Psalms , Canticles, and 

 Ecclesiasttsy in verse ; and also translated Ovid's Metamorphoses. He was 

 one of the best versifiers of that age, and died in 1 642. 



t Does not Walton here mistake the sense of two passages in Scripture, 

 viz. Matt. 3, 16, and Luke 3. 22. in which the baptism of our Lord' is 



