THE PAGAN-CHRISTIAN OVERLAP OF THE WISE BIRD. 125 



from the Persian messenger-dove, first brought to Europe by Dutch 

 sailors. It has been said that at the moderate elevation of 

 430 feet a bird can see 25 miles a-head. This estimate is much 

 too low. When the atmosphere possesses what meteorologists call 

 " visibility " the unaided human eye at an altitude of 300 feet can 

 easily detect coastlines across the sea at a distance of 70 miles. 



It must be observed that the words dove, culver, columba, and 

 K6\vn$os, all mean a diver or swimmer; and it is said that these 

 names were bestowed on pigeons because of their " peculiar mode 

 of flight." This is imaginary. Their mode of flight does not in 

 any way suggest the action of swimming or diving so forcibly as 

 to single them out for a name from hawks, larks, sea-gulls, and all 

 the fowls of heaven. 



They have, however, one distinguishing habit so peculiar as to 

 warrant a generic designation. In their mode of drinking they 

 differ remarkably from all other birds (Dallas, Op. Cit., 494), for 

 instead of taking up a small quantity of water in the mouth and 

 then swallowing it by raising the head, tliey immerse the bill in 

 the water and drink without stopping till they are satisfied. 



In re-considering the etymology we find that *oAvjuj3aw may be 

 used with the modified meaning " to dip," since Thucydides and 

 Plato employ the stronger form Karcuto\vn0du for "diving," and that 

 the English dove, the A. S. dufa, and the Gothic dubo have " dip " 

 as well as "dive" for their congener. The A. S. verbs dippan, 

 dopettan, mean "to dip," " to plunge," "to immerse." The A. S. 

 dop-fugel is the moorhen, which is a true diver, as are the dipper, 

 or water-ousel, and the dab-chick, or little grebe, called in Dorset 

 die-dapper. But the A. S. dob-enid, or dipping-duck, is the 

 gannet, which is quite incapable of true diving (Dallas, Op. Cit., 

 p. 437), and takes its fish by flying over the sea and suddenly 

 dropping upon any that comes in sight. " Dip " and " dive " are 

 therefore etymologically convertible, and doves are fowls that are 

 named from the fact that they dip the beak in drinking. 



By the Greeks doves were ranked as wise birds. Dionysius of 

 Halicarnassus, who wrote in the first years of our era, states that 



