518 
plint's natural histoet. 
[Book X. 
then afterwards, to make some atonement, he falls to bill- 
ing, and by way of pressing his amorous solicitations, sidles 
round and round the female with his feet. They both of them 
manifest an equal degree of affection for their offspring ; in- 
leed, it is not unfrequently that this is a ground for correction, 
in consequence of the female being too slow in going to her 
young. . When the female is sitting, the male renders her every 
attention that can in any way tend to her solace and comfort. 
The first thing that they do is to eject from the throat some 
saltish earth, which they have digested, into the mouths of 
the young ones, in order to prepare them in due time to re- 
ceive their nutriment. It is a peculiarity of the pigeon and 
of the turtle-dove, not to throw back the neck when drinking, 
but to take in the water at a long draught, just as beasts of 
burden do. 
(35.) We read in some authors that the ring-dove lives so 
long as thirty years, and sometimes as much as forty, without 
any other inconvenience than the extreme length of the claws, 
which with them, in fact, is the chief mark of old age ; they 
can be cut, however, without any danger. The voice of all 
these birds is similar, being composed of three notes, and then 
a mournful noise at the end. In winter they are silent, and they 
only recover their voice in the spring. J^'igidius expresses it 
as his opinion that the ring-dove will abandon the place, if she 
hears her name mentioned under the roof where she is sitting 
on her eggs : they hatch their young just after the summer 
solstice. Pigeons and turtle-doves live eight years. 
(36.) The sparrow, on the other hand, which has an equal 
degree of salaciousness, is short-lived in the extreme. It is 
said that the male does not live beyond a year ; and as a ground 
for this belief, it is stated that at the beginning of spring, the 
black marks are never to be seen upon the beak which began 
to appear in the summer. The females, however, are said 
to live somewhat longer. 
Pigeons have even a certain appreciation of glory. There 
is reason for believing that they are well aware of the colours 
of their plumage, and the various shades which it presents, and 
even in their very mode of flying they court our applause, as 
they cleave the air in every direction. It is, indeed, through 
55 See B. xviii. c. 68 ; where lie says that the summer solstice is past at 
the time of the incubation. 
