220 COMMON PIGEON. Clafs IL 



^aurojihenes alfo, by means of a pigeon he had 

 decked with purple, fent advice to his father, who 

 lived in the ille ai Mgina^ of his victory in the 

 Olympic games, on the very day he had obtained it *. 

 And, at the fiege of Modena^ Hirtius without, and 

 Brutus within the walls, kept, by the help of pigeons, 

 a conftant correfpondence ; baffling every ftratagem 

 of the befieger Antony -f, to intercept their couriers: 

 In the times of the Crufades, there are many more 

 inftances of thefe birds of peace being employed in 

 the fervice of war: Jomvilk rehtes one during the 

 crufade of Saint Louis J j and TaJJd another, during - 

 the fiege of Jerufalem §. 



The nature of pigeons is to be gregarious ; to lay 

 only two eggs -, to breed many times in the year || •, to 

 bill in their courtfhip ; for the male and female to fit 

 by turns, and alfo to feed their young; to caft their 

 provifion out of their craw into the young ones 

 mouths; and to have a note mournful, or plaintive. 



* JElian 'var. hijl. lib. ix. 2. Pliny, lib. X. c. 24. fays, that 

 fwallows have been made ufe of for the fame purpofe. 



f Pliny, lib. X. c. 37. Exclames, Quid vallum et vigil obfidio 

 atque etiam retia amne pretenta profueie Antonio, per ccelum eunte 

 Tiuncio ? 



X Joiwuilk, 638. app. 35. 



§ Ariojlo, canto xv. go. ■* 



II So quick is their produce, that the author of the Oeconoiny of 

 ■nature obferves, that in the fpace of four years, 14,760 may come 

 irom a finglepair. Stillingfleet'' i tra^s. 75. 



il. The 



