8 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
If a breed of Fowls was to be had in Egypt, one would 
expect it to be also existent in Syria, yet whether Fowls are 
mentioned, or not, in the Old Testament, is a point not settled, 
commentators being by no means agreed. The Hebrew word 
barberim in 1 Kings iv. 23 is considered by most scholars 
to mean “fatted fowl,” and is so translated in both the 
Authorised and Revised versions, but some have raised 
arguments against that reading. It is worthy of notice that 
the Domestic Fowl] is among the few animals which have shown 
themselves capable of living and multiplying in any and every 
country, from the equator to the poles: so long have they been 
under the yoke of man, that they have lost the need of any 
— Y 
STATUETTE OF A DOMESTIC FOWL. 
particular climate, or soil. This makes it the more likely that 
they were early introduced into both Syria and Egypt. 
The Pigeon.—Tristram takes the view that the Pigeon, and 
not the Fowl, is the earliest domesticated bird of which we have 
any knowledge. In Egyptian records, Pigeons in a domestic 
condition date back to the fifth dynasty, that is about 3000 
B.c., indeed the art of training them as carriers of news was 
known not a great while later.* No bird is more frequently 
mentioned in the Old Testament. It was a Dove or Pigeon 
that Noah chose to send out from the Ark, when the Raven 
failed, and some early attempt at taming is indicated by 
the fact of their being offered with domestic animals like the 
Heifer and the Goat, in sacrifice. It was at least 2000 B.c. 
when Abraham was bidden to present ‘‘a Turtle-dove and 
a young Pigeon,” for those being very likely the kind of birds 
* Wilkinson’s “ Ancient Egyptians,” S.S. II., p. 215. 
