84 The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
some small kind of dove, distinct from the turtle dove, is 
intended. Both the rock-dove and the wood-pigeon are 
common in Mesopotamia, and perhaps one or the other is 
intended by the Assyrian names. 
(26.) Nothing at all definite can be said of the species 
of dove mentioned under the Assyrian name of ir-ca-bu 
(Ef^i >-£z^| ^*~) or the Babylonian form, ri-ga-bu 
(»»yy<y ^yyy-^ ^^)- Dr. Delitzsch compares the Ethiopic 
(CM1 ! regebe) " a dove," which he thinks is so called from 
its shyness, comparing the name with the Arabic verb rajaba 
(^J^-J), "to be timid." Some kind of dove is certainly 
therefore meant. 
(27.) Another dove is denoted by the word Su-um-mu 
(V>^yy S^yyy which occurs both in the Accadian and 
Assyrian columns ; the word is doubtless of Semitic origin, 
and borrowed by the Accadians. The Summatu is one of the 
birds sent out from the ship in the Chaldean story of the 
Flood ; the swallow and the raven, it will be remembered, 
being the other two birds. Dr. Delitzsch compares the 
Arabic sdmmat or s*ammata, "a bird like a swallow," and 
translates the Assyrian word by "sand-martin." But when 
we compare this part of the Deluge Tablet with the account 
of the birds sent out by the Biblical Noah, and remember 
the position which the dove holds there, there seems more 
reason to suppose that the summu or himmatu is a form of the 
Arabic hamamat (^^[^S^ a dove or pigeon — the s and h 
being here interchanged — than that a "sand-martin" is 
meant. In modern Arabic hamamat and zamdmat are botli 
names of the " pigeon." The Accadian name in the Deluge 
Tablet is TU KHU Q-BB] HM); 1 ^ is not certain why the 
name of the "descending bird" (for T\5 = eribu, "to descend") 
should be given to a pigeon or dove, but I think it is quite 
probable that the idea refers to the habit of pigeons gene- 
rally making a momentary suspension or hovering motion a 
1 The Sumerian name is ^| *"T < T te-Jchu (Haupt, "Accad. und Sumer. 
Keilschr.," I, p. 43, 1. 49). 
