LECTURE VI. 195 



as the moderns*. The Pigeon is the C. Oenas of 

 Linnaeus. It must not be confounded with the 

 IVood-Pigeon, Ring- Dove ; or the Columba Pa- 

 lumbus of Linnaeus, which is of much larger size : 

 in some writers, however, we find this latter bird 

 improperly named the Stock-Dove, Thus Thorn* 

 son in particular so names it. 



" The Stock-Dove only thro' the forest cooes 



Mournfully hoarse j oft ceasing from his plaint^ 



Short interval of weary woe ; again 



The sad idea of his murder'd mate 



Struck from his side by savage fowler's guile 



Across his fancy comes ; and then resounds 



A louder song of sorrow thro' the grove." 



intelligence; or if a letter be tied to its leg, it becomes the swiftest 

 of all messengers. The tales related of this bird are almost in- 

 credible. One has been known to fly from Babylon to Aleppo^ 

 (which is considered as a distance of thirty days j ourney^) in the 

 space of forty-eight hours. 



* Linnaeus observes that the domestic Pigeon commonly, ot 

 at least frequently, breeds once a month ; laying two eggs each 

 time : the increased production of the whole, would amount in 

 the space of four years to the number of eighteen thousand. 

 Others say that from a single pair of Pigeons may proceed four" 

 teen thousand in the space of four years. 



