The Zoologist — January, 1867. 535 



short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, while they are ap- 

 proaching the gates of Macbeth's castle, has always appeared to me a 

 striking instance of what, in painting, is termed repose. Their con- 

 versation very naturally turns upon the beauties of its situation and 

 the pleasantness of the air ; and Banquo, observing the martlets' 

 nests in every recess of the coruice, remarks that where those birds 

 most breed and haunt the air is delicate. The subject of this quiet 

 and easy conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after 

 the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts 

 the scene of horror that immediately succeeds." 



" but like the martlet 

 Builds in the weather ou the outward wall, 

 Even in the force and road of casualty." 



Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Scene 9. 



Pigeon (Columba livid).* 



" 0, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly 

 To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont 

 To keep obliged faith unforfeited." 



Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Scene 6. 



" Enter a Clown tvilh a basket and tioo pigeons. 



" News, news from heaven ! Marcus the post is come. 

 Sirrah, what tidiugs ? have you auy letters ? 



Titus Andronicus, Act iv. Scene 3. 



The practice of using pigeons as letter-carriers, here alluded to by 

 Shakespeare, is of very ancient date. The old historian Diodorus 

 Siculus informs us that above two thousand years ago they were 

 employed for this purpose; and about five hundred years since relays 

 of carrier pigeons formed part of a telegraphic system, adopted by the 

 Turks. " Regular chains of posts were established, consisting of high 

 towers between thirty and forty miles asunder, provided with pigeons, 

 and sentinels stood there constantly on the watch, to secure the 

 intelligence communicated by the birds as they arrived, and to pass it 



* No particular species being referred to by Shakespeare, we give the scientific 

 name of that from which our domestic pigeons are believed to be descended. 



