DOVES 5 



of one week, with ruffled feathers looking like a barn- 

 door fowl about to die. Not content with this, it swore 

 at every one who went near it. 



Those who really believe that doves are incapable of 

 anger should make a point of seeing a couple of them 

 mobbing a tree-pie that has just breakfasted off their 

 eggs. Let me not be mistaken. I am not finding fault 

 with the doves. I hold that their anger is perfectly 

 justified under such circumstances. 



The biblical doctrine of turning the unsmitten cheek 

 to the smiter does not apply to them. Since, however, 

 they act just as any other little bird would do under 

 similar circumstances, it is obviously incorrect to speak 

 of them alone as " free from anger." It gives one an 

 altogether false idea of the character of the dove. That 

 worthy bird is ever ready to take the law into its own 

 hands. Then, again, I have never been able to discover 

 any piety about the dove. Complacency it undoubtedly 

 possesses, the complacency of the self-made man. But 

 this surely is not piety ! 



" How," remarks Phil Robinson, who goes to the 

 opposite extreme and is very severe on doves, " if the 

 doves could read English poetry, would they put their 

 tongues in their cheeks and wink at each other, and 

 how the worse conditioned of them would explode with 

 laughter ! " He maintains that doves have acquired 

 their spurious reputation for saintliness because they 

 make such a fuss, such an amount of cooing over their 

 love affairs. To this must, I think, be added the general 

 butter-will-not-melt-in-my-mouth appearance of the 

 bird. A dove looks so defenceless ; but it cannot be 



