86 The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
birds mentioned as having a resting place among the reeds 
(W.A.L, V, pi. 32, 56, &c.) The two other Assyrian names 
for the partridge are probably onomato-poetic, and if pro- 
nounced rapidly with repetition are not bad imitations of the 
call of these birds during the pairing season, or of the cry 
of the scared birds when suddenly disturbed. 
(30). Mention is made in the historical inscriptions of some 
long-pouched bird under the names of gilgiddnu and kidinnu. 
Merodach Baladan " is said to have been struck with fear, 
and to have fled from Babylon like sudinni birds." 
The name of gi-il-gi-dd-nu HflA £?TT *^~) 
has rather an Accadian aspect, and if so was used by the 
Assyrians as a loan word. I am inclined to think that the 
Accadian words, GIL and GID, are exhibited in the name. 
Now, GID is a well-known word, and denotes "long," 
whether applied to a long-legged bird, or a long kind of 
ship or other object. It occurs in the Accadian name of the 
ostrich, as we shall see by-and-bye. Gil, whether expressed 
by the ideograph T*~J or >=yy^^ has various meanings. 
It means an enclosure as represented by the character 
among other significations. The character >=YT*^*^ as 
occurring in Sennacherib's will (W.A.I., Ill, 16, 3), can 
scarcely mean anything else than a " cup " or " goblet," 
as Prof. Sayce has already translated it. This Assyrian 
monarch bequeathed to his son Esarhaddon amongst 
other valuables, " golden bracelets, heaps of ivory, and a 
golden goblet (>=||«^^) gil khuratsi." It is true that 
this explanation needs absolute confirmatory proof, and I 
therefore cannot speak positively. The idea therefore 
involved in this explanation is probably that of a bird with 
a large cup or pouch. The other word has a Semitic 
aspect : sudinnu (^^-^ as Delitzsch has pointed 
out, bears in sound at least a resemblance to the Arabic 
word saddnat (^&\sxS^)i which Freytag renders by "columba 
vel nomen columbae cujusdam," "a dove of some kind." 
I think that the word Sudinnu may be referred to the Arabic 
dan Q^x*^)) " a sail," or sadal (^^sS)- ^ ne ver b sdddld 
sa 
