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 in- 

 tended is a granivorous and gregarious bird, of which he gives a 

 particular account, and also an engraving. 



THE HERON. 



A WIDE latitude has been taken in the rendering of the Hebrew 

 anaph ; some critics interpreting it of the crane, others of the cur- 



