Beast

Sources : Dove

Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 7.60-61): [Book 12, 7.60] In contrast to this, the dove loves human society; it is always a pleasant inhabitant in a house. [Book 12, 7.61]. They are called doves [columba] because their necks [collum change color every time they turn. They are tame birds, comfortable amid a large group of humans, and without bile. The ancients called them ‘love birds’, because they often come to the nest and express their love with a kiss. - [Barney, Lewis, et. al. translation]

Thomas of Cantimpré [circa 1200-1272 CE] (Liber de natura rerum, Birds 5.36): Aristotle says that it has gall, but not in the same place as other animals: for it has it in the intestine. Therefore the contradiction of Bede, who says that it has no gall, is resolved by this, that it should be heard: not in the place where in the other animals are. It stirs up love with a kiss, it travels in flocks, it does no harm to anyone with its beak, it does not live on the dead, it feeds on pure grain, it has a moan for a song, it feeds other birds' chicks. The dove regains sight nine times. It nestles in the depths, as Jacobus and Bede say, where evil beasts cannot reach. It rests more willingly upon the waters, that it may quench its thirst, and behold the shadow of the coming hawk in the waters. There is a certain tree of the East, as it says, which in Greek is called peridexion, but in Latin it is circa dextram. The fruit of this tree is sweet, and the doves are wonderfully delighted with it. Its shadow and its branches protect the dove. There is a kind of dragon in these parts, which lies in wait for the doves. But the dragon itself is by nature terrified by the tree, so much so that it is afraid of being touched by the shadow of the tree. When the doves are sitting in a tree at a distance, the dragon waits and watches to see if any of them should leave the tree and become its prey. But if the shadow is on the left side, the dragon moves to the right, if the right, the left. Palumbos [turtledove] is a kind of dove, which is of a cerulean color, with a white circle around the neck, and an extraordinary brightness. It is larger than the other doves. Having lost its companion, it remains alone, and does not perch on anything green, nor does it desire any other companionship. Jacobus: Across the sea, towards the East, there are doves which, acting as messengers, carry the letters of their masters under their wings, passing over many parts of the world in a short time. But they are very necessary, especially when other messengers do not dare to pass through the enemy's lands. Aristotle: Doves are most chaste and do not know adultery. They do not violate faith, as Pliny says, they love the common house and, unless it is a celebrant and chaste or a widow, they do not leave the house. It is certain, however, that there are some doves which do not know males, while others are those which have been married at first and have remained a widow. But such doves avoid the common house of those doves that join together in pairs, lest they be troubled by the disturbances of the males, and flee away, and live in the walls. The love for both offspring is equal. The chicks spit out the salty earth collected in their throats as the parents prepare the food for the season. Doves always bring forth their young in pairs, giving birth to the male first, and the female after three days. Both incubate alternately: the female incubates from the afternoon until the morning, and the male at the rest of the time. On the eighteenth day they hatch. As the Experimentator says, the dove first penetrates the shell and then divides it. When they find a stray dove, the others gather it together with them. They eat pebbles for the sake of tempering their stomachs (for they are very hot by nature). They fight with raised feathers. It has very hot dung, which it throws out of the nest and teaches its young to throw out. The blood of a dove, a tern, and a tortoise, taken from under the right wing, and applied to the eye, heals; for it is sharp and has the power to dissolve. - [Badke translation/paraphrase]

Guillaume le Clerc [ca. 1210 CE] (Bestiaire, Chapter 35): Among all the other birds / Is the dove a courtly and pretty one / And has a good meaning. / The holy spirit in the likeness of it / Descended at the baptizing / Of Jesus Christ without doubt, / And many a time it has happened / That in its likeness has come / The holy spirit for to comfort / Those whom man is wont to persecute, / To make them forsake that God / Who is quite able to save and heal them. / Formerly each year was one used / In the city of Jerusalem / To see on the eve of Easter / A white dove really come, / Which brought the new fire. / In the dove you have a very sweet bird / Without guile and without bitterness; / It has a pretty habit, / For in billing they are so associated, / That when billing they are inflamed with love. / When they are within the dovecote— / Two or three hundred or a thousand— / One there is which is very bold. / When he moves, they move all of them. / He leads them from all sides / To the mountains and forest glades, / To the open fields and ploughlands, / And to the fields of sown corn. / And when he finds the wild pigeons, / He is so clever and wise, / That he brings them to his dovecote. / In such way he makes them leave the wood / And forget their wild nature, / And makes them consort with him. - [Druce translation]

Bartholomaeus Anglicus [13th century CE] (Liber de proprietatibus rerum, Book12.6): Culvers are called Columbe, & they have that name of Colore, of ye neck: for in the necke their feathers be sprong with many divers colours, as Isid[ore] saith. And Culvers be milde birds and meeke, and haunt and love company of men, & have conversation in their multiplieng. In olde time men called them Venerias, lecherous: for they use ofte neasts, and conceive with billing and love; and use much lecherie. And therefore a Culver is called Columba, colens lumbos, as it were tilling landes and reynes, as Isid[ore] sayth, For Culvers lay in all times and have birdes, if their dwelling be hot, & their meate ready. And they have better birdes in harvest than in springing time or in summer, and that for plentie of meate, as Isid[ore] saith. li. 5. Arist[otle] speaking of the kinde of Culvers saith, That the Culver is a lecherous birde, and they kisse or bill each other, before their treading. And if the old male may not tread, yet he ceaseth not to bill. And often the female leapeth upon the female, when the male lacketh, and so in kissing & billing, they cast not Semen: but of such manner treading sometime come egges, and of such egges come no birdes, but they be as winde egges. And all birdes that be like to Culvers, lay in springing time twice or thrice, and lay two egges, and lay not the third time, but when the second laieng is corrupt and destroyed. Also li. 6. he saith, that for the most part, Culvers have two birdes, male and female, and the first bird is male: & some time one bird is hatcht and commeth out of the shell in one daye, and the other on the morrowe. And the male sitteth on brood by day, & the female by night, & the first egge filleth it selfe, and sheddeth in twentie daies, and first the Culver pearceth the shell, and then dealeth it. And male and female heateth the birds in one time, and the female is more busie about the birdes than the male, and laieth egges ten times in one yeare, and sometime xi. times or xii. as in Aegypt, and the male treadeth the female after one yeare. Also lib 8. he sayeth, That when the Culver hath birdes, anone the male ruleth the birdes: and if the female tarie over long ere shée come to the Byrdes, for sorenesse of the birth, than the male smiteth and beateth hir, and compelleth hir to sit hir selfe upon the birdes. And when the birdes wex, the male goeth and sucketh salte earth, and he giveth and putteth it in the mouth of the birdes to make them have talent to meate. And when the male will put the birds out of the neast, he treadeth them both. Also Culvers have this propertie, as Turtells have: they areare or lyfte not up their heads when they drinke, ere they have dronke inough, and generally they live and bréeds fiftéene yeares. Huc usque Arist[otle] But the properties of Culvers, that are usuall and notably knowen, the Glose toucheth uppon this sentence: Oculi tui Columbarum. Cant. 1. Where it is sayd, that a Culver hath no gall, and hurteth, and woundeth not with the bill, but his owne pere. And moreover he maketh his neast in dennes and holes of stones, and féedeth others birds, and draweth to the companye of Culvers that wander and straye about, and abideth nigh rivers, and eateth the best greynes, and hath groning in the stéede of song: they flye in flockes, and love companye, and they defende themselves with the wings & with the bill: and they eate no carraines, nor other uncleane things. The Culver feedeth two birds. The Culver sitting on rivers, séeth the shadow of the Goshawke comming, and as seene as it séeth the Goshawke, it flyeth into the inner place of an hoale, and there hideth it selfe, as sayeth the Glose upon the foresayd sentence. And as Constantine sayth in Viatico, The bloud of a Culver is medicinable, for it is sayd, that the bloud drawen under the right wing, and dropped in hot, swageth and slaketh the ach of bleared eyen: and hath burning dirt, and throweth it out of the neast, and custometh and teacheth hir birdes likewise to cast it out, as Aristotle saith. The Culver is messenger of peace, ensample of simplenes, cleane of kinde, plenteous in young, follower of méeknesse, friend of companye, forgetter of wrongs: and the more it is feathered, the more plentuous it is in kinde founde. Therefore rough sooted Doves bréede well nigh in everye month. The Culver is kindly fearfull, & seldome in safetie, but when shée is in an hole of stone, and there she resteth for a time. The Culver is forgetfull, & therefore when the birdes are borne awaye, she forgetteth hir harme and damage, and leaveth not therefore to build and bréede in the same place, as Jerome sayth, Also she is nicely curious: for sitting on a trée, she beholdeth and looketh all about toward what part she will fly, and bendeth hir necke all about, as it were taking advisement: but oft, while she taketh advisement of flight, ere she taketh hir flight, an arrowe flyeth thorough hir body, and therefore she fayleth of hir purpose: for that that she was about long to doe, she performed not in due time, as Gregory sayth. Also as it is sayd In dietis perticularibus, Culver flesh is hard to digest, and gleymie, and therefore it giveth great nourishing and thicke, & namely flesh of young Culvers. But when they begin to flye, because of moving and of travayle, it looseth much of that heavinesse, and the flesh is made more light and more able to digest: and the elder it is, ye harder it is, & the worse to digest, and the worse nourishing it giveth to bodies. Also sometime a same Culvour is found and faught to beguile and to despise wilde Culvours, & leadeth them into the net. And to deceive them the more slilye, it goeth with them into the Fowlers net, & suffreth it selfe to be caught & wrapped therein, and draweth them toward meate, as it wer in liknes of friendship, but so in féeding, draweth them to grins and to their destruction. Also (as Ambrose sayth in Aegypt & in Syria, a Culver is taught to beare letters, and to be messenger out of one province into another. For it loveth kindly the place and the dwelling, wher it was first fed and nourished, and be it never so farre borne into farre country, alway it will returne home againe, if it be restored to fréedome: and oft to such a culver, a letter is craftely bound under the one wing, & then it is let go: then it flieth up into the aire, & ceaseth never till it come to ye first place in which it was bred. And sometime in the way enemies know thereof, and letteth it with an arrowe, and so for the letter that it beareth it is wounded and slaine, and so it beareth no letter without perill: for ofte the letter that is so borne, is cause and occasion of the death of it. - [Batman]