In the Hebrew version of the flood Noah sends first a raven, then a dove and the dove returns the second time with an olive leaf in its mouth.
Sacred Doves are usually associated with the sepulchral cult. The "dove shrines" of Mycenrea are also connected with sacred trees and pillars. In Christian art the Dove is the symbol of the Holy Ghost. It is pre-eminently the emblem of the soul and is thus seen issuing from the lips of dying martyrs.
Symbolising the Holy Spirit it hovers about the Virgin and was also given to certain saints who were believed to be divinely inspired.
The Woodpecker was sacred among the Latins. A woodpecker as well as a wolf was said to have fed the twins Romulus and Remus.
Crows in Pairs were a symbol of conjugal fidelity in Egypt, where the same quality was given to them that attaches itself to the mandarin duck in China and the pigeon in other countries-that if either dies the other never consoles itself-never re-mates.
Birds not only symbolised the soul, sun, wind, storms, fecundity, growth, immortality but they were "fates." Certain birds had the gift of presage. The Crow in Japan is a bird of ill omen. If the crow cries when anyone is ill death is near. It was looked upon as a bird of misfortune also in Italy and France.