Cliap. 52.] 
PTGEOKS. 
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 in concealment, she 
will, if she perceives the female decoy-bird of the fowler ap- 
proaching 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 for 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 will throw 
herself on her back in some furrow, and seizing a clod of 
earth with her claws, cover herself ^11 over. It is supposed 
that the life of the partridge extends to sixteen years. 
CHAP. 52. (34.) — PIGEONS. 
Next to the partridge, it is in 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 will 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 
infidelity, 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. 
