Palestine, or, the Holy Land: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time

by Michael Russell

BIRDS OF THE AIR.

English Translation. Probable Species.
Eagle Eagle.
Ossifrage Vulture.
Ospray Black Eagle.
Vulture Hawk.
Kite Kite.
Raven Raven.

LAND BIRDS.

Owl Ostrich.
Night-hawk Night-owl.
Cuckoo Suf-saf.
Hawk Ancient Ibis.

WATER BIRDS.

Little Owl Sea-gull.
Cormorant Cormorant.
Great Owl Ibis Ardea.
Swan Wild Goose.
Pelican Pelican.
Gier Eagle Alcyone.
Stork Stork.
Heron Long-neck.
Lapwing Hoopoe.

These are the unclean birds, according to the Mosaical arrangement and the views of the English translators. But it must not be concealed, that the attainments of the latter in ornithology were not particularly accurate; and, as a proof of this; we may mention a fact obvious to the youngest student of Oriental languages, that the same Hebrew words in Leviticus and Deuteronomy are not always rendered by the same term in our tongue. For example, the vulture of the former book is in the latter called the glede; and there are many similar variations, in different parts of the Old Testament, in regard to the others.

The swan, or tinshemet of the Hebrews, is a very doubtful bird. The Seventy render it by porphyrion, which signifies a purple hen, a water-fowl well known in the East. Dr. Geddes observes that the root or etymon of the term tinshemet denotes breathing or respiring,—a description which is supposed to point to a well-known quality in the swan, that of being able to respire a long time with its bill and neck under water, and even plunged in mud. Parkhurst thinks the conjecture of Michaelis not improbable, namely, "that it is the goose, which every one knows is remarkable for its manner of breathing out or hissing when provoked." The latter writer observes, "what makes me conjecture this is, that the Chaldee interpreters who in Leviticus render it obija, do not use this word in Deuteronomy, but substitute the 'white kak,' which, according to Buxtorf, denotes the goose." Norden mentions a goose of the Nile whose plumage is extremely beautiful. It is of an exquisite aromatic taste, smells of ginger, and has a great deal of flavour. Can this be the Hebrew tinshemet, and the porphyrion of the Seventy?

Again, it is conjectured by modern naturalists that the heron should be included among storks. Commentators, it is true, are quite at a loss in regard to the precise import of the original term anapha, and some of them accordingly leave it altogether untranslated. It is not improbable that the Long-neck mentioned by Dr. Shaw may be the animal alluded to by the sacred lawgiver. This bird, we are told, is of the bittern kind, somewhat less than the lapwing. The neck, the breast, and the belly are of a light yellow colour, while the back and upper part of the wings are jet-black. The tail is short; the feathers of the neck are long, and streaked with white or a pale yellow. The bill, which is three inches long, is green, and in form like that of the stork; and the legs, which are short and slender, are of the same colour. In walking and searching for food, it throws out its neck seven or eight inches; whence the Arabs call it Boo-onk, or Long-neck.[200]

The hoopoe is thought to be pretty well ascertained; yet we might suppose that a bird which frequents water more than the European variety does, would not have been misplaced at the close of the list given above. The accuracy of the inspired writer, however, in treating this part of the subject, has been generally extolled,—an accuracy which, there is no doubt, will hereafter lead to the most satisfactory conclusions in determining the several species he enumerates. All these birds being fish-eaters, no distinction is afforded arising from diversity of food; but the Hebrew naturalist begins with those which inhabit the sea and its rocky cliffs, the gannet and the cormorant; then he proceeds to the marsh birds, the bitterns; then to the river and lake birds, the pelican, the kingfisher, or the shagarag; then the stork, which is a bird of passage, lives on land as well as on water, and feeds on frogs and insects no less than on fish; then to another, which probably is a bird of passage also, because it is mentioned the last in the catalogue. The hoopoe is certainly a migratory bird, feeds less on fish than any of the former kinds, and has, in fact, no great relation to the water.