964 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth." 

 It was forbidden for food.' In several passages the raven is referred 

 to as illustrating the care with which God watches over his creatures.^ 

 "He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.'" 

 "Who provideth for the raven his food, when his young ones cry unto 

 God, and wander for lack of meat."^ "Consider the ravens, that tliey 

 sow not, neither reap ; which have no store chamber nor barn ; and God 

 feedeth them ; of how much more value are ye than the birds." The 

 custom of the ravens of attacking the eyes of young or sickly animals 

 is alluded to in Proverbs xxx, 17: "The eye that mocketh at his father 

 and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it 

 out, and the young eagles shall eat it." The raven and allied species 

 are abundant in Palestine. 



Sparrow {Passer domesticus ; Hebrew, ^Ippor). — The Hebrew word 

 gipjyor denotes birds in general, being used especially, however, of small 

 birds. In the following passages it appears to refer to the sparrow in 

 particular: Psalm Ixxxiv, 3: "The sparrow hath found her an house, 

 and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young;" and 

 Psalms cii, 7 : "I watch, and become like a sparrow that is alone upon 

 the house top." Jesus refers to the sparrow in illustration of God's 

 benignant care of his creatures:^ "Are not two sparrows sold for a 

 farthing? and not one of them shall fall to the ground without your 

 Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not 

 therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."^ Several species 

 of the sparrow occur in great abundance in Palestine, especially on the 

 Plain of Gennesareth. 



Black Stork {Ciconia nigra; Hebrew, Hasidah). — The stork was 

 accounted an unclean bird.^ It is a migrant,^ "Yea, the stork in the 

 heavens knoweth her appointed times," and built its nest in "the fir 

 trees."^ The Hebrew name Hasidah means the kind, the pious one 

 (Latin, pia avis), owing to the filial piety and devotion which was 

 attributed by the ancients to this bird. 



The passage in Job xxxix, 13: "The wing of the ostrich rejoiceth, 

 but her pinions and feathers are kindly (Hebrew, hasidah^ is thought 

 to contain an allusion to the stork, whose treatment of the young is so 

 different from that of the hard-breasted ostrich. '"^ 



Owing to this belief and to its feeding on noxious reptiles and insects 



1 Leviticus xi, 15 ; Deuteronomy xiv, 14. 



2 Psalms cxlvii, 9. 

 'Job xxxviii, 41. 

 ■* Luke xii, 24. 



6 Matthew x, 29-31. 

 'i See also Luke xii, 6, 7. 

 ^ Leviticus xi, 19; Deuteronomy xiv, 18. 

 ^ Jeremiah viii, 7. 

 s Psalms CIV, 17. 

 i"!. M. Casanowicz Paronomasia iu the Old Testament, p. 57. 



