(hi the Kath of the Ancient He1/re*ms. 1 37 



feeding, and thereby to diminish the ordinary frictioit upon 

 the edges of the other three incisors, these hkewise uUimately 

 became preternaturally elongated, though to a much less 

 degree. 



Art. V. On the Kath of the Ancient Hebretvs, considered as the 

 Pelican of the Moderns."^ By David Scot, M.D. M.W.S. 

 F.H.S.E. 



Kath is a species of bird reckoned unclean by the law of 

 the Hebrews, and mentioned five times in their writings. In 

 three passages f, it is rendered pelican by the Sept. Why it 

 should not be so rendered in the other two passages if, it is not 

 easy to discover. Perhaps the translators of these were not 

 the same as the translators of the former ; and what not a little 

 favours this conjecture, the translators of the prophets are ob- 

 served to be inferior to those of the law. 



It is rendered pelican by the Vulg. in one passage §, but 

 onocrotalus in three passages.il Nor is the Vulgate to be 

 charged with inconsistency in so doing; for onocrotalus is 

 understood to be the same bird as the pelican. Formerly 

 naturalists were not agreed upon this point ; but, latterly, the 

 number of dissenting voices has been on the decline. The 

 arguments for and against it have been stated by Professor 

 Cyprian, in his enlarged edition of Franzius's History of 

 Animals, 



Onocrotalus is properly a creature that brays like an ass, 

 and the pelican is thought to have got that name from the 

 harshness of its cry. This it chiefly utters when on the wing. 

 In this respect it imitates those birds which approach it in 

 size ; such as the heron, the wild swan, and the crane. 



Some say that the cry of the pelican resembles the complaint 

 of a man in distress, and that David compares himself to it on 

 account of his moaning.4- " By reason of the voice of my 

 groaning my bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of 

 the wilderness : I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and 

 am like a lonely bird on the house top." 



Of this passage the points of comparison may be disputed, 



* Read before the Wer. Nat. Hist. Soc. 31st Jan. 1829, and communi- 

 cated to the Magazine of Natural History, by Dr. Scot, Feb. 25. 

 f Levit. xi. 18. Deut. xiv. 17., and Psalms cii. 7. 

 X Isa. xxxiv. 11., and Zeph. ii. 14. 

 § Psal. cii. 7. 



II Levit. xi. 18. Isa. xxxiv. U., and Zeph. ii. 14. 

 4- Psal. cii. 5, 6, 7. 



Vol. II. — No. V. l . 



