Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/401

Rh their flight, sometimes in a compact mass, sometimes in a long line (Par. xviii. 73)—

or (Purg. xxiv. 64), like the birds that winter on the Nile, sometimes make of themselves a compact array, sometimes fly in a long line. Milton speaks of both in the same passage. He says:—

So has Dante seen them—seen the great flocks part, and wheel, some north, some south (Purg. xxvi. 43)—seen them, and heard their melancholy note, which is so well adapted to describe the cry of the lost souls (Inf. v. 48) —

After the Cranes, Dante has most to say of the Pigeons. He has a wonderfully accurate picture of a flock of them coming down, and setting to work in a business-like way (Purg. ii. 125: "senza mostrar l'usato orgoglio"), pecking at blades of grass, first on one side and then on another, until a sudden scare comes, and they rise en masse and fly away. Or, again, what a perfect picture one has of the Rock-Pigeon sweeping down to its nest with firm expanded wings (Inf. v. 82)—

So, too (Par. xxv. 19), where a Dove settles by its mate, and walks round it cooing; the rhythm of the line helps one to imagine the whole scene—

as "les tourterelles roucoulaient" of La Fontaine's fables lets