BOOK X.] History of Nature. 225 



charged with Adultery. They do not violate the Bond of 

 Marriage, but keep at home together. They abandon not 

 their own Nests, unless they are in state of single Life, or a 

 Widow. The Females endure their imperious Males, and 

 even those which are churlish ; because they are jealous, 

 though their Nature is not that Way. Then the Throat is 

 full of Complaint, and they peck them cruelly with their 

 Beaks; and yet soon after, by way of Satisfaction, they kiss 

 them, and will make court to them, by turning round about 

 many Times with their Feet, and utter the Prayers of Venus. 

 The Male and the Female love their Young alike : and 

 often there is Correction, because the Hen does not more 

 frequently visit her Young. When they are about to lay, 

 they comfort and minister to them. So soon as the Eggs 

 are hatched they discharge into the Mouths of the Young a 

 salt kind of Earth, which they have gathered in their Throat, 

 to prepare their Stomachs in Time for Food. Doves and 

 Turtle-doves have this Property, that when they drink they 

 do not draw their Necks back, but take a large Draught in 

 the manner of Cattle. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

 Of the Palumbus. 



WE have some Authors who affirm that the Palumbus 

 lives thirty Years, and some to forty Years, with no Incon- 

 venience but this : that their Claws become overgrown, 

 which is a Sign of old Age ; but they may be pared without 

 Danger. They have all one and the same manner of Tune; 

 they make three Rests in their Song, besides the close, which 

 is a Moan. In Winter they are silent; in Spring they are 

 loud. Nigidius is of opinion, that if a Palumbus is called by 

 Name in a House as she is sitting upon her Eggs, she will 

 leave her Nest. They lay after Midsummer. Calumbae and 

 Turturs live eight Years. 



VOL. III. 



