y seen."
Malone[302] quotes from Lyly's "Euphues and his England" (p. 312, ed.
Arber): "For as there is but one phoenix in the world, so is there but
one tree in Arabia wherein she buyldeth;" and Florio's "New Worlde of
Wordes" (1598), "Rasin, a tree in Arabia, whereof there is but one
found, and upon it the phoenix sits."

[302] See Aldis Wright's "Notes to The Tempest," 1875, p. 129.

_Pigeon._ As carriers, these birds have been used from a very early
date, and the Castle of the Birds, at Bagdad, takes its name from the
pigeon-post which the old monks of the convent established. The building
has crumbled into ruins long ago by the lapse of time, but the bird
messengers of Bagdad became celebrated as far westward as Greece, and
were a regular commercial institution between the distant parts of Asia
Minor, Arabia, and the East.[303] In ancient Egypt, also, the carrier
breed was brought to great perfection, and, between the cities of the
Nile and the Red Sea, the old traders used to send word of their
caravans to each other by letters written on silk, and tied under the
wings of trained doves. In "Titus Andronicus" (iv. 3) Titus, on seeing a
clown enter with two pigeons, says:

"News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come.
Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters?"

[303] _Daily Telegraph_, January 31, 1880; see Southey's
"Commonplace Book," 1849, 2d series, p. 447.

From the same play we also learn that it was customary to give a pair of
pigeons as a present. The Clown says to Saturninus (iv. 4), "I have
brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here."[304]

[304] See _Dove_, pp. 114, 115.

In "Romeo and Juliet" (i. 3) the dove is used synonymously for pigeon,
where the nurse is represented as

"Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall."

Mr. Darwin, in his "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication"
(vol. i. pp. 204, 205), has shown that from the very earliest times
pigeons have been kept in a domesticated state. He says: "The earliest
record of pigeons in a domesticated condition occurs in the fifth
Egyptian dynasty, about 3000 B.C.; but Mr. Birch, of the British Museum,
informs me that the pigeon appears in a bill of fare in the previous
dynasty. Domestic pigeons are mentioned in Genesis, Leviticus, and
Isaiah. Pliny informs us that the Romans gave immense prices for
pigeons; 'nay, they are come to this pass that they can reckon up their
pedigree and race