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to eagles; witness the condor of America, said to stretch eighteen feet. As we can learn nothing from the versions, we have attended to Onkelos, who renders, naked, which leads us to the vulture at once, and is supported by the LXX and Vulgate.

We may consider as certain, 1st, That the vulture could not be unknown in the countries where Moses wrote. 2dly, That it was likely to form a distinct class of birds, though reckoned among eagles. 3dly, That modern naturalists are often at a loss whether to determine some kinds of birds to the eagle, or to the vulture tribe. Vide Latham's Synopsis, vol. i. No. 3. We have given the figure of that eagle which Bruce calls nisser tokoor, but of whose manners he gives no history. This figure we give merely on the conjecture, that as the vulture was distinguished among eagles, by its deficiency of feathers on the neck, so the atzniah of this passage might be distinguished by superfluity of feathers, on the head. Besides this bird, whose tuft is on the back of his head, the nisser of Bruce has a beard under his chin; and we know another, which is often called "the bearded vulture;" but which having feathers on the neck is as often classed among eagles. Might this peculiarity form these birds into a class opposed to that of the vulture?

No. 4. Is the OSPRAY, OF SEA EAGLE, copied from Buffon; who says, it differs from other eagles, 1st, By the colour and shape of its claws, which are (exceedingly large and strong; Pennant) of a shining black, and form a perfect semicircle. 2dly, By the legs, which are naked in the lower parts, and covered with small scales of a bright yellow colour. 3dly, By a beard of feathers under his chin, which has procured him the name of "the bearded eagle." But Pennant says, "underneath his bill grow several short, but strong hairs, or bristles, forming a sort of beard;" and this seems to be more correctly descriptive of this bird, who is ill entitled to the name of "bearded eagle," though he seems to introduce those thus distinguished, when others have this appendage so much more considerable. In fact, this beard is not shewn, either in the figure of Buffon, or in that of Pennant. This bird, in extent of wings, is nine or ten feet; it feeds principally on fish, by darting it self down on them. Martin, speaking of the great eagles in the Western Isles, says, they fasten their talons in the back of the fish, commonly of salmon, which are often above water, or on the surface. Those of Greenland will even take a young seal out of the water. It preys also on water fowl, and on game of most kinds. It always builds near water, either the sea or inland lakes where it finds its prey.

We are now able to appreciate another reason for the order we have adopted, and the propriety of rendering the second eagle, vulture: for if we note the food which is principally selected by each bird, we

find the first, the eagle, feeds on living game of all kinds; i.e. it catches them while living, and kills them itself: so that it may be correctly said of this bird, which carries living prey to its nest, "its young ones suck down blood," fresh blood from the expiring subject. On, the contrary, this cannot be said of the vulture, which forms the second class of eagles, for this feeds on dead prey, prey dead before the bird attacks it; nay, even putrid food; for Latham says, "Of this circumstance I am clear, from the carrion vultures of Jamaica, two of which I kept for some time. They would indeed eat any raw flesh, but expressed a particular happiness when any tainted food was offered them; fluttering with expanded wings without ceasing, and falling on with double the appearance of appetite, as well as devouring twice the quantity as at other times," vol. i. p. 3. The third class of eagles feeds on fish; so that we have in the permanent distinctions of nature an authority in support of our order, which is independent of the meaning of names, and the rendering of translators, though perfectly coincident with the opinions of those who appear to have most correctly understood the subject. No. 5. The HAWK, or Hebrew SWIFT. We have given the figure of the rough legged falcon from Pen

nant.

As we suppose that this name includes the whole genus [as well as the other instances,] we have rather chosen this, which is a wandering hawk, than one more stationary, or fixed, in a country.

As there is no difficulty in admitting this bird to be the hawk, if the second bird in the list be the vulture, we shall not add any observations on this number.

The kite is regularly placed with the hawk, and pretty much resembles it in figure and manners. It generally breeds in large forests, or wooded, mountainous countries. Its motion in the air distinguishes it from all other birds, being so smooth and even as to be scarcely perceptible; sometimes it remains quite motionless for a considerable space; at others it glides through the sky, without the least apparent action of its wings: from hence is derived its old name glede, or the glider. It eats lesser birds, game, also offals, &c. Its tail is forked.

The versions agree with the kite as being the bird intended; the Chaldee terms imply rapaciousness; the Syriac, a bird of high flight. It is in length about twenty-seven inches; breadth five feet.

No. 6. The RAVEN, CROW, &c. are certainly designated by the generic name in the original. They generally build in trees, and are held in some respect for devouring carcasses and filth, that would otherwise prove a nuisance. The raven is a very docile bird, flies in pairs, a great height, making a deep, loud noise. Its scent is remarkably good. It is very long lived. The raven, and crow, will pick out the eyes of

lambs just dropped; for which reason it was formerly, in England, called gor, or gorcrow; and so Ben Jonson says, Fox, act i. scene 1.

.... Vulture, kite,

Raven and gorcrow, all my birds of prey.

The reader will perceive, in the above description, sufficient reason for associating the raven and crow among birds of prey, even eagles and vultures; nor can I refrain from observing, that Solomon has well consorted the raven with the eagle, Prov. xxx. 17.

The eye which mocketh its father,
And despiseth to obey its mother,

The ravens of the valley shall pick it out,
The young eagles shall eat it.

The ROOK feeds entirely on grain and insects, not on carrion; is a sociable bird, living in vast flocks. We need not introduce others of this class, as they are well known among us.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE OF UNCLEAN WATER BIRDS.

No. 1. The GANNET is a large bird, weighing seven pounds; in length three feet; remarkable for the quickness of its sight. Beneath the chin is a kind of bag, dilatable, capable of containing five or six entire herrings, which it carries in the breeding season to its nest. It soars to a vast height, then darting headlong into the sea, makes the water foam and spring up with the violence of its descent. The title of cataracta, a name borrowed from Aristotle, admirably expresses the rapid descent of this bird on its prey. Some years ago, a gannet flying over Penzance, seeing some pilchards lying on a fir plank, it darted. down with such violence as to strike its bill through the board, an inch and a quarter thick, and broke its neck. They are sometimes taken at sea by a similar trap. Linnæus classes this bird with the pelican. Among the Rabbins, some have taken the first bird in the list of water birds for the pelican. Bochart thought the same: but if this bird, though not properly a pelican, yet has so much resemblance as to have influenced Linnæus, both Bochart and the Rabbins may stand excused; whose opinion, nevertheless, coincides with our own.

No. 2. The CORMORANT is about three feet in length, has a slight kind of pouch under the chin; inhabits the highest cliffs over the sea; is remarkably voracious; has a rank and disagreeable smell, even while alive; its voice is hoarse and croaking; has been trained to fish for its master, to whom it forms a considerable source of profit in China. The same formerly in England. Whitelock tells us, he had a cast of them manned like hawks, which would come to hand. This agrees with the versions as to the character of the second bird in this list; and being,

like the former, a sea bird, seems to follow it with propriety.

No. 3. The smaller heron, or rather a kind of bittern, the "little bittern" of Pennant. The reader sees, in loc. the account of this bird given by Hasselquist. Our figure is copied from Dr. Russell, Aleppo, vol. ii. p. 200, who observes, that "it is not represented in its proper attitude; for the bird, when alive, stands with his body perfectly erect, as well as his head and neck." This singular attitude is hinted at by the sketch, No. 4. The length of the bird is about fifteen inches. It is common near Aleppo. The history of this bird in Pennant informs us, that it is a very retired bird, concealing itself in the midst of reeds and rushes in marshy places. It is slow of flight. It has two kinds of notes; one croaking, when it is disturbed; the other bellowing, which it commences in spring and ends in autumn. Mr. Willoughby says, that in autumn it soars into the air with a spiral ascent, making, at the same time, a singular noise. The ancients mention three kinds of heron: 1st, Leucon, the white heron. 2dly, Pellos, supposed to be the common sort. 3dly, Asterias, the starry, the bittern, supposed to derive this name from sometimes aspiring, as it were, to reach the stars, though at other times meriting the epithet onos, lazy. The noises made by this bird seem to correspond with its Hebrew appellation, to which perhaps they gave occasion.

The GOOSE should be the next article; but, 1st, it is still dubious whether this bird be the bird intended. 2dly, The bird is too well known to need a figure.

No. 5. The PELICAN. I believe there is no great hesitation in considering this bird as that really intended by the Hebrew writer. This bird, when of full age, is greatly superior in size to the swan; will weigh twenty-five pounds, and extend fifteen feet. The upper mandible is flat and broad, hooked at the end; the lower mandible has appended to it a very dilatable bag, reaching eight or nine inches down the neck of these bags some are capable of containing many quarts of water. It is common in warm countries; on the coasts of the Mediterranean, &c. The female makes a nest of grass in mossy, turfy places, in the islands of rivers or lakes, far from man. Its food is fish, which it takes by diving. When, hovering over the water, it sees a fish, it dives instantly, and seldom misses of catching it, in which the enormous gape of its bill greatly assists. When it has filled its pouch, it flies to some convenient point of a rock, and swallows the fish at leisure. It sometimes fishes in company with cormorants and gulls. The notion of the pelican's feeding her young with blood from her breast, has arisen from seeing it discharge the pouch of water, or fish, for their nourishment.

No. 6. Shews the bag distended. This bird is used for domestic fishing like the cormorant.

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No. 7. The KINGFISHER. This bird is inserted merely to shew how aptly he would fill the station, and answer the description, of a bird here wanted. He is, therefore, to be considered as conjectural only. The reader sees his general description and manners, in loc.

No. 8. Is the ROLLER of Europe, or shagarag of Dr. Shaw. This species is diversified and spread in Africa. Mr. Bruce gives another shagarag, which he calls sheregrig, and to which are appended two long tail feathers. As I am of opinion, that the description given of the shagarag is very applicable to the kingfisher, while the stories of the affection, &c. of the kingfisher are allied to the character of the racham of Scripture, I cannot help suspecting, that a bird of the kingfisher kind, in some of its varieties, is the subject intended rather than the shag

arag.

No. 9. The STORK, is the size of a turkey, or larger; length three feet three inches; bill seven inches three quarters, colour of it a fine red; plumage mostly white. It is a bird of passage, tending toward the south in autumn, to winter in Egypt. It is very rare in England, but in Holland they every where build on the tops of houses, where boxes are made to receive their nests. In Persia, at the ruins of Persepolis, the remains of the pillars serve them to build on, "every pillar having a nest of them," says Fryer, Trav. p. 251. They are common at Aleppo. Dr. Shaw saw three flights of them leaving Egypt, passing over mount Carmel, toward the northeast, in the middle of April, each flight half a mile in breadth, and they were three hours in passing over. They eat fish, frogs, snakes, and various reptiles; hence the veneration they have enjoyed, as freeing mankind from such pests and vermin. The Hebrew word chasidah has generally been understood to signify the stork; the meaning of the word is to swell, and it is taken metaphorically for swelling beneficence. We have ventured, however, in FRAGMENT, No. 285, to query whether it might not be derived from an attitude assumed by the bird, a swelling attitude. Passing this, we remark that the stork may stand in this list as the representative of the whole genus, including the heron and its varieties.

The strongest argument against the stork as the chasidah of the Hebrew text is used by Michaelis, who thought the stork did not roost, or dwell in trees; yet the Psalmist says, civ. 17. "the fir-trees are the house of the chasidah." To this it is answered, that Doubdan mentions "the resting, i.e. roosting, of storks on trees, between Cana and Nazareth :" and Dr. Shaw says expressly, "the storks breed plentifully in Barbary; the fir-trees, and other trees likewise, when those are wanting, are a dwelling for the stork, Psalm civ. 17." It is therefore probable, that the stork accommodates itself to circumstances; that wherever it obtains rest, security, and accommodation, there it resides, whether the place be a ruin

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or a tree; but in countries not so populously inhabited as Holland, or most parts of Europe, the tall trees may be most convenient for it. Alkazuin, an Arabian writer, remarks, "that it always makes its nest on some elevated spot, whether it be a tall building or a tree." Heldelinus assures us, that "it builds on the tops of houses, or on dry trees, which, however, is rare." Olympiodorus, on Job, informs us to the same purpose. So that, on the whole, we need not hesitate, on account of the infrequency of the storks of Europe inhabiting trees, to admit, nevertheless, that the stork may be the chasidah of the Hebrew writers.

No. 10. The boo-onk of Dr. Shaw. This bird is given only by way of conjecture; what may be said of it is given, in loc. This bird is thought to

No. 11. The HOOPOE.

be pretty well ascertained; nevertheless we may conjecture, that a bird which frequents water more than the hoopoes of Europe do, would not be misplaced at the close of this list.

I cannot help remarking, how accurately the sacred writer has treated this part of his subject; an accuracy which will enable us, some time or other, to come pretty near to certainty in determining the birds he enumerates. As all these birds are fish eaters, there is no distinction arising from their diversities of food; but the Hebrew naturalist begins with those which inhabit the sea and its rocky cliffs: the GANNET, or sea pelican, so to term it, and the CORMORANT; then he proceeds to the marsh birds, the BITTERN; then to the river and lake birds, the PELICAN; the kingfisher, or the shagarag; then the STORK, which is a bird of passage, and lives on land as well as on water, and feeds on frogs and insects as well as on fish; then to another, which probably is a bird of passage also, because the last on the list, the HOOPOE, is certainly of passage, and feeds less on fish than any of the former kinds, and has indeed no great relation to the water. It may, however, be said, that the two last birds are not intended to be merely water birds, but are of kinds prohibited for other reasons: as the BAT, which concludes the list, clearly is.

On the whole, I think we may safely conclude, that though we have not identified every bird in this catalogue, yet we have traced the system of the writer; and have opened the writer; and have opened the way for actual observation to identify them; which can only be satisfactorily accomplished in the countries to which these regulations are adapted. It will be observed, that in our list we have marked in small capitals those birds which we think may be depended on.

In addition to the Plates already given of "Unclean Birds," we have thought it might be satisfactory to add representations of some particulars which have been incidentally mentioned in the foregoing discourse; these we offer in the Plate subjoined.

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