Dict: smith - DOVE

smith:

DOVE - D>@ - The first menton of this bird occurs in kjv@Genesis:8. The dove’s rapidity of flight is alluded to in kjv@Psalms:55:6) the beauty of its plumage in kjv@Psalms:68:13) its dwelling int he rocks and valleys in kjv@Jeremiah:48:28) and kjv@Ezekiel:7:16 Its mournful voice in kjv@Isaiah:38:14 kjv@Isaiah:59:11; kjv@Nahum:2:7) its harmlessness in kjv@Matthew:10:16) its simplicity in kjv@Hosea:7:11) and its amativeness in (Solomon kjv@1:15; 2:14) Doves are kept in a domesticated state in many parts of the East. In Persia pigeon-houses are erected at a distance from the dwellings, for the purpose of collecting the dung as manure. There is probably an allusion to such a custom in kjv@Isaiah:60:8)

DOVES DUNG - D>@ - Various explanations have been given of the passage in ( kjv@2Kings:6:25) Bochart has labored to show that it denotes a species of cicer , "chick-pea," which he says the Arabs call usnan , and sometimes improperly "dove’s" or "sparrow’s dung." Great quantities of these are sold in Cairo to the pilgrims going to Mecca. Later authorities incline to think it the bulbous root of the Star of Bethlehem (ornithogalum , i.e. bird-milk), a common root in Palestine, and sometimes eaten.
ED. It can scarcely be believed that even in the worst horrors of a siege a substance so vile as is implied by the literal rendering should have been used for food.