CHAPTER VI.

THE BIRDS UNDER DOMESTICATION.

Cock.--“Cock-Crow.”--“Cock-shut-time.”--“Cock-a-Hoop.”--“Cock and Pye.”--Cock-Fighting.--Ancestry of the Domestic Cock.--The Peacock.--Its Introduction into Europe, and Ancient Value.--In Request for the Table.--The Turkey.--Date of Introduction into England.--Shakespeare’s Anachronism.--Pigeons.--First used as Letter-Carriers.--A Present of Pigeons.--Meaning of “Pigeon-Liver’d.”--Pigeon-Post.--Mode of Feeding the Young.--The Barbary Pigeon.--The Rock-Dove.--Doves and Dovecotes.--The “Doves of Venus.”--“The Dove of Paphos.”--“As True as Turtle to her Mate:” “as Plantage to the Moon.”--Mahomet’s Dove.--A Dish of Doves.--The Goose.--“Green-Geese,” and “Stubble-Geese.”--“Cackling home to Camelot.”--“The Wild-Goose Chase.”--The Swan.--“The Bird of Apollo.”--Song of the Swan.--Habits of the Swan.--The Swan’s Nest.--As Soft as Swan’s-down.--“Juno’s Swans.”--Cygnets. 167