Chap. 52.] PIGEONS. 517 



greatest excitement, the beak being wide open and the tongue 

 thrust out. The female will conceive also from the action of 

 the air, as the male flies above her, and very often from only- 

 hearing his voice : indeed, to such a degree does passion get 

 the better of her affection for her offspring, that although at 

 the moment she is sitting furtively and ia concealment, she 

 win, if she perceives the female decoy-bird of the fowler ap- 

 proachii^ her mate, call him back, and summon him away 

 from the other, and voluntarily submit to his advances. 



Indeed, these birds are often carried away by such frantic 

 madness, that they will settle, being quite blinded by fear," 

 upon the very head of the fowler. If he happens to move in 

 the direction of the nest, the female bird that is sitting will 

 run and throw herself before his feet, pretending to be over- 

 heavy, or else weak in the loins, and then, suddenly run- 

 ning or flying ior a short distance before him, will fall down 

 as though she had a wing broken, or else her feet ; just as he 

 is about to catch her, she will then take another fly, and so 

 keep baffling him in his hopes, until she has led him to a con- 

 siderable distance from her nest. As soon as she is rid of her 

 fears, and free from all maternal disquietude, she wiU throw 

 herself on her back in some furrow, and seizing a clod of 

 earth with her claws, cover herself all over. It is supposed 

 that the life of the partridge extends to sixteen years. 



CHAP. 52. (34.) — pieEONS. 



Next to the partridge, it is ia the pigeon that similar ten- 

 dencies are to be seen in the same respect : but then, chastity 

 is especially observed by it, and promiscuous intercourse is a 

 thing quite unknown. Although inhabiting a domicile in 

 common with others, they will none of them violate the laws 

 of conjugal fidelity : not one wiU desert its nest, unless it is 

 either widower or widow. Although, too, the males are very 

 imperious, and sometimes even extremely exacting, the females 

 put up with it : for in fact, the males sometimes suspect them of 

 infidehty, though by nature they are incapable of it. On 

 such occasions the throat of the male seems quite choked with 

 indignation, and he inflicts severe blows with the beak : and 



** " Metu." Aristotle says, by sexual passion. The reading is probably 

 corrupt here. 



