Turtle, or Tl'ktle-dove ("lIFl, tor, so called, no doubt, in imitation of its cooing note; rpuywv), occurs tirst in Scripture in Gen. xv, 9, where Abram is com- manded to offer it along with other sacrifices, and with a young pigeon (5T1J, gozdl). In the Levitical law a pair of turtle-doves or of young pigeons are constantly prescribed as a substitute for those who were too poor to provide a lamb or a kid, and these birds were admis- sible either as trespass, sin, or burnt offering. In one instance, the case of a Nazarite having been accident- ally defiled by a dead body, a pair of turtle-doves or young pigeons were specially enjoined (Numb, vi, 10). It was in accordance with the provision in Lev. xii, 6 that the mother of our Lord made the offering for her purification (Luke ii, 24). During the early period of Jewish history there is no evidence of any other bird except the pigeon having been domesticated; and up to the time of Solomon, who may, with the peacock, have introduced other gallinaceous birds from India, it was probably the only poultry known to the Israelites. To this day enormous quantities of pigeons are kept in dove-cots in all the towns and villages of Palestine, and several of the fancy races so familiar in this country have been traced to be of Syrian origin. The offering of two young pigeons must have been one easily within the reach of the poorest, and the offerer was accepted according to what he had, and not according to what he had not. The admission of a pair of turtle-doves was, perhaps, a yet further concession to extreme poverty ; for, unlike the pigeon, the turtle, from its migratory nat- ure and timid disposition, has never yet been kept in a state of free domestication; but, being extremely nu- merous, and resorting especially to gardens for nidifica- tion, its young might easilj' be found and captured by those who did not even possess pigeons.
TurtuT ^i/i/ptia<;uS.
TURTLE
601
TUTIANI
It is not improbable that the palm -dove {Turtur yEffi/ptiacus, Temm.) may, in some measure, have sup- plied the sacrifices in the wilderness, for it is found in amazing- numbers wherever the palm-tree occurs, wheth- er wild or cultivated. In most of the oases of North Africa and Arabia every tree is the home of two or three pairs of these tame and elegant birds. In the crown of many of the date-trees five or six nests are placed together; and sportsmen have frequently, in a palm-grove, brought down ten brace or more without moving from their post. In such camps as Elim a con- siderable supply of these doves may have been obtained.
From its habit of pairing for life and its fidelity for its mate, the dove was a symbol of purity and an ap- propriate offering (comp. Plinv, IJist. Nat. x, 52). The regular migration of the turtle-dove and its return in spring are alluded to in Jer. viii, 7, '• The turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming;" and Cant, ii, 11, 12, "The winter is past . . . and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." So Pliny, " Hyenie mutis, a vere vocalibus;" and Aristotle, Bisf. A n. ix, 8, " Turtle-doves spend the summer in cold countries, the winter in warm ones," although else- where (viii, 5) he makes it hybernate {(pwXei). There is, indeed, no more grateful proof of the return of spring in Mediterranean countries than the voice of fhe turtle. One of the first birds to n)igrate northwards, the turtle, while other songsters are lieard chiefly in the morning or only at intervals, immediately on its arrival pours forth from every garden, grove, and wooded hill its melancholy j'et soothing ditty unceasingly from earh' dawn till sunset. It is from its plaintive note, doubt- less, that David, in Psa. Ixxiv, 19, pouring forth his la- ment to God, compares himself to a turtle-dove.
From the abundance of the dove tribe and their im- portance as an article of food, the ancients discriminated the species of Coluinbuhe more accurately than of many others. Aristotle enumerates five species, which are not all easy of identification, as but four species are now known commonly to inhabit Greece. In Palestine the number of species is probably greater. Besides the rock-dove (jColumha liria, L.), very common on all the rocky parts of the coast and in the inland ravines, where it remains throughout the j'ear, and from which all the varieties of the domestic pigeon are derived, the ring-dove (Columba palumbus, L.) frequents all the wooded districts of the country. The stock-dove {Co- lumba cenas, L.) is as generally, but more sparingly, dis- tributed. Another species, allied either to this or to Columba liria, has been observed in the valley of the Jordan, perhaps Col. leuconota, Vig. (see Ibis, i, 35). The turtle-dove (Turtur auritus, L.) is, as has been stated, most abundant, and in the valley of the Jordan an allied species, the palm -dove, or Egyptian turtle {Turtur A'^gyptiacus, Temm.), is by no means uncom- mon. This bird, most abundant among the ))alm-trees in Egypt and North Africa, is distinguished from the common turtle-dove by its ruddy chestnut color, its long tail, smaller size, and the absence of tiie collar on the neck. It does not migrate, but, from the simUari-