30 FRIENDSHIP OF THE KESTREL. [CHAP. i. 



in his thirty-fifth book, as a proof of the perfection to 

 which the art had been carried in his day. He says, 

 that there is at Pergamos a wonderful specimen of a 

 Dove drinking, and darkening the water with the 

 shadow of her head ; on the lip of the vessel others are 

 pluming themselves. ' Mirabilis ibi columba bibens, 

 et aquam umbra capitis infuscans. Apricantur alise 

 scabentes sese in cathari labro.' It was found in 

 Hadrian's villa in 1737, by Cardinal Furietti, from 

 whom it was purchased by Clement XIII." 



The tutelary patronage and grateful friendship sup- 

 posed to subsist between the Kestrel Hawk and the 

 Pigeon, ought not to be omitted in any account of the 

 Doves of yore. Pliny writes, " Speculator occultus 

 fronde latro, et gaudentem (columbam) in ipsa gloria 

 rapit." "The thievish Falcon watches under his 

 covert of leaves, and seizes the rejoicing bird in its 

 very pride." We have elsewhere noticed how trouble- 

 some the predacious birds seem to have been in Italy, 

 during the times when northern Europe was less thickly 

 inhabited than it is at present. " Wherefore, the bird 

 which is called tinunculus, or Kestrel, should be kept 

 with them ; for it defends them, and frightens Hawks 

 by a natural power to such a degree that they avoid the 

 sight and sound of it. On this account, Pigeons regard 

 them with especial love. And they say, that if they be 

 buried in four corners of the pigeon-house in fresh- 

 painted earthen vessels, the Pigeons will not shift their 

 habitation a result which some have endeavoured to 

 obtain by cutting the joints of their wings with a 

 golden knife, wounds otherwise inflicted not being 

 harmless and the bird being besides much of a 

 vagrant ; for it is their artifice to wheedle and corrupt 



