---
title: "The Ant and the Dove"
source_work_title: "Three hundred Aesop’s fables"
source_story_title: "The Ant and the Dove"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21"
source_text_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/21/pg21.txt"
source_locator: "The Ant and the Dove, lines 3039–3050 in the UTF-8 text snapshot"
source_name: "Project Gutenberg"
author: "Aesop"
source_translator: "George Fyler Townsend"
source_language: "en"
language: "en"
license: "Public domain in the USA"
license_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21.rdf"
collected_at: "2026-09-14T23:31:00Z"
status: "raw_collected"
adaptation_target: "prenatal_story_zh"
---
# The Ant and the Dove
AN ANT went to the bank of a river to quench its thirst, and being
carried away by the rush of the stream, was on the point of drowning. A
Dove sitting on a tree overhanging the water plucked a leaf and let it
fall into the stream close to her. The Ant climbed onto it and floated
in safety to the bank. Shortly afterwards a birdcatcher came and stood
under the tree, and laid his lime-twigs for the Dove, which sat in the
branches. The Ant, perceiving his design, stung him in the foot. In
pain the birdcatcher threw down the twigs, and the noise made the Dove
take wing.