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THE CORMORANT.

THIS bird, which was unclean to the Hebrews (Lev. xi. 17; Deut. xiv. 17) is about the size of a large Muscovy duck, and may be distinguished from all other birds of this kind, by its four toes being united together by membranes, and by the middle toe being toothed or notched, like a saw, to assist it in holding its fishy prey. Its head and neck are of a sooty blackness, and the body thick and heavy, more inclining in figure to that of the goose than the gull. The bill is straight, till near the end, where the upper chap bends into a book.

But notwithstanding the seeming heaviness of its make, there are few birds more powerfully predacious than the corinorant. Formed with the grossest appetites, this unclean bird has the most rank and disagreeable smell, and is more fœtid, even when in its most healthful state, than carrion. Its form, says an ingenious writer, is disagreeable; its voice is hoarse and croaking; and all its qualities obscene. No wonder, then, that Milton should make Satan personate this bird, when he sent him upon the basest purposes, to survey with pain the beauties of Paradise, and to sit devising death on the tree of life. It has been remarked, indeed, of our poet, that the making a water fowl perch on a tree, implied no great acquaintance with the history of nature. But, in vindication of Milton, it must be observed, that Aristotle expressly says, the cormorant is the only water fowl that sits on trees; so that our epic bard seems to have been as deeply versed in natural history as in criticism.

The cormorant is trained up in China, and other parts of the world, for the purpose of taking fish, after which it dives with great dexterity and perseverance,

SECTION IV.

DUBIOUS BIRDS.

THE CUCKOO.

WE believe that the bird called in Hebrew shacheph, and in our version 'cuckoo,' has never yet been properly identified. Bochart, and the versions generally, decide in favor of the sea-mew; but this can hardly be admitted, since the shacheph is placed by the Hebrew legislator, not among water birds, but among those of the air, and also among birds of prey, Levit. xi. 16. The latter circumstance seems also decisive against the bird which has been made to take its place in the English Bible. Dr. Shaw thinks that the bird intended is a granivorous and gregarious bird, of which he gives a particular account, and also an engraving.

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A WIDE latitude has been taken in the rendering of the Hebrew anaph; some critics interpreting it of the crane, others of the cur

lew, some of the kite, others of the woodcock, some of the peacock, some of the parrot, and some of the falcon. But let not the reader be alarmed at this diversity of rendering, since it is the necessary consequence of the scantiness of references to the bird in the sacred text, and the absence of all description of its character and qualities, in those passages in which it is spoken of. The truth is, that it is only referred to in the catalogue of birds prohibited by the Mosaic code, (Lev. xi. 19; Deut. xiv. 18;) and it is only from the import of its name, or the known character of the birds with which it is grouped, that we can form any conjecture of its specific character. That the creature intended is some species of water bird, there can be little doubt, if we give the sacred writer any credit for propriety in his grouping, or system in his arrangement; but what that species may be, we are unable to decide. The Hebrew. name is from a root which signifies to breathe short, or snort through the nostrils, as in anger; and as the heron is said to be of a very irritable disposition, it may, perhaps, be the bird intended.

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It is extremely uncertain what bird is intended by the Hebrew, in (Lev. xi. 18), rendered by our translators, the swan. The same word is used in a subsequent verse to denote the mole, according to our version, but more probably, as Bochart has shown, the chameleon. The root from which the word is derived, signifies to breathe, respire, &c.; and Geddes remarks, that if etymology were to be our guide, it would seem to point to a well-known quality in the swan, that of being able to respire a long time, with its bill and neck entirely under water, and even plunged n the mud.

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