PIGEONS OP ANCIENT ITALY. II3 



Here two distinct species are clearly meant by the words 

 palumbes and turtur. About the latter of these there is no 

 difficulty ; from all that is told us of it we gather that it is the 

 same bird which the French still call towrtereUe and the Italians 

 tortorella, and which we know as the Turtle-dove ; it is still 

 found in small numbers passing the summer and breeding 

 in Italy, and is most frequent in the sub-alpine region of which 

 Virgil is here writing. But what bird is here meant by palumhes 1 

 Both this word and its near relative colwmha must be trans- 

 lated by 'pigeon, but can we distinguish them as different species ? 

 Here the commentaries and dictionaries give us no substantial 

 help, and I may be pardoned for pausing a moment to 

 consider a question of some interest to historical ornitho- 

 logists. 



There are at the present day three kinds of pigeons beside the 

 turtle-dove just mentioned, which are found in Italy ; they are 

 the same three which we know in England as the Wood-pigeon 

 or King-dove, the Stock-dove, and the Rock-dove or Blue-rock. 

 Of these the last, which with us is the rarest, only found 

 on certain parts of our coast, is by far the most abundant in 

 Italy, and is the only one which habitually breeds there. The 

 other two species pass over Italy in spring and autumn regularly, 

 but seldom or never stay there ; they go northwards in the spring 

 from Africa and the east, and return again in the autumn after 

 . breeding in cooler climes. But it is fairly certain that in ancient 

 times two species of pigeons bred in Italy : (i) the bird meant by 

 palwnibes, of which Virgil makes the shepherd Damoetas say in 

 the third Eclogue that he has ' marked the place where they have 



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