Dove
Dove names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Dove a bird not readily distinguished from the pigeon
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a bird not readily distinguished from the pigeon. The most prominent American species is the common mourning dove. It breeds from Cuba to Manitoba, and winters from the Ohio River southward. This dove is about twelve inches long, colored much like a wild pigeon. The name comes from the peculiarly sweet, mournful, cooing call of the male which corresponds to the drumming of the partridge and the booming of the grouse. "The soft, melancholy cooing of the mourning dove, whose voice," says Roosevelt, "always seems far away, expresses more than any other sound in nature the sadness of gentle, hopeless, never-ending grief." The dove seems quite at home in the small groves of farmsteads. It builds a careless, flat nest of loose twigs at the end of a spreading branch from five to fifteen feet above the ground. Eggs, two, beautifully white, about an inch long. An examination of the stomachs of several mourning doves showed that their food consisted of seeds of sorrel, spurge, ragweed, sunflower, pigeon-grass, violet, smartweed, buckwheat, and wheat. The dove of history is necessarily an Old World species. It is the emblem of innocence and gentle affection. Noah sent a dove forth from the ark to see whether the waters were abated. The turtledove was offered by the Israelite as a burnt offering. King David exclaimed, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away, and be at rest. Then I would fly away and remain in the wilderness." Christ, it will be remembered, overthrew "the seats of them that sold doves" in the temple. In ecclesiastical art, the dove is the symbol of the Holy Ghost. In Matthew iii: 16, we find "Lo, the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him." In heraldry the dove bearing an olive branch is the emblem of peace. See Pigeon Mourning dove
Dove the English appellation of the Thus the genus Columbus
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the English appellation of the Thus the genus Columbus, or Columba. ænas stock-dove is Columbus or Columba , the ring-dove C. palumbus, the rock-dove dove C. turtur. C. livia, and the turtle- No very clear distinction is drawn between the words dove and pigeon, thus is often called the rock-pigeon C. livia instead of the rock-dove; yet Ectopistes migratorius is never called the migratory dove, but only the migratory pigeon. Pl.: The order Columbæ. Sometimes it is made a sub-order of Rasores, in which case it is called Columbacei or Gemitores. The dove in Christian art is the symbol of the Holy Ghost (Matt. iii : 16); as such, it is represented in its natural form, the body of a snowy whiteness, the color beak and claws red, which is the natural to those parts in white doves. The nimbus which always surrounds its head should be of a gold color, and divided by a cross, which is either red or black. A radiance of light invests and proceeds from the person of the dove, and is emblematical of the Divinity. It is also sometimes represented, in glass, with seven rays, termistained nating in stars, significant of the seven The dove is the gifts of the Holy Ghost. , innocence, emblem of love, simplicity ; holding purity, mildness, compunction branch, it is an emblem of peace. an oliveto serve Doves were used in churches (1) Suspended over three purposes: altars to serve as a pyx. (2) As a type Spirit over altars, or figure of the Holy baptisteries, and fonts. (3) As symbolical ornaments. The dove is also an emblem of the human soul, and as such is seen issuing from the lips li of dying martyrs and devout persons.
Dove a river rising 4 miles S
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a river rising 4 miles S. W. of Buxton, England, and flowing S. and S. E. along the borders of Derbyshire and Staffordshire to the Trent, which it enters at Newton Solney, after a course of 45 miles. It was the favorite fishing stream of Izaak Walton, who lived here , Charles Cotton; and it is with his friend still beloved of anglers.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's listed "Ectopistes migratorius" in 1921 as the migratory pigeon without remark; the last of that species, Martha, had in fact died at the Cincinnati Zoo on 1 September 1914, and the passenger pigeon is now the standard textbook case of human-caused extinction. The mourning dove Aiton's described in 1910 has gone the other way: still abundant, it is now the most heavily hunted game bird in North America, with tens of millions taken each year, and it is classed as Zenaida macroura rather than lumped with Columba. The old order Columbae is now Columbiformes, and the catch-all group Rasores, which Collier's offered as a possible parent, was abandoned by taxonomists long ago. The Derbyshire Dove is still Izaak Walton's trout stream, and Dovedale has been protected within the Peak District National Park since 1951.
Written for this edition, 2026.