88 The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
have noticed on occasions of its being prepared for cooking, 
and I think that the presence of this gular bag is intimated 
by the Accadian word gil, the first component part of the 
bird name gil-gid-ajiu, which stands for the great bustard. 
Other species of bustards are found in the lands with which 
we are concerned. 
(31.) The common crane (firm cinerea) is mentioned in 
the bilingual lists as the ur-ni-gu (jJ^J "jV-^) or ur ~ n ^ u 
(ItJ Sfr and ca-li-u ^gjf t^t). The 
first name appears to be identical with the Arabic ghir-nik 
(d^Nj^)» " a wa ter bird with a long neck," a very indefinite 
explanation, it is true, when taken by itself; but it is certain 
that the crane is meant. Under the name of Ghornak, 
Forskal mentions a, white bird which feeds on gadfly larvae 
found on the backs of cattle, " aestris pascitur in tergo bovum 
nidificantibus," which, as we shall see by-and-by, is the buff- 
backed heron. As a warning of the necessity of being 
acquainted with the natural history of the bird, or any 
animal under consideration, before we make some positive 
assertion, a matter to which I have already alluded, I will 
add just this one more. Rosenmuller, the great German 
orientalist and commentator on the Scriptures, whose name 
cannot be mentioned without feelings of the greatest admira- 
tion, Rosenmuller, in his very valuable notes to Bochart's 
"Hierozoicon," has this short comment on Forskal's Ghornak, 
" Patet hanc avem non esse gruem," "It is evident that this 
bird is not a crane." True, the bird is not a crane, but a 
heron ; but the improbability of a heron in such situations 
would appear as great as that of a true crane. Ghurnuk and 
Hr-ki are modern vernacular for the crane in Arabic. 
The word ca-li-u or ca-lu-u is identical with the Chaldaic 
(cela) "to call out," in allusion to the loud, sonorous 
voices of these birds, which they utter high in air on their 
periodic migrations. The Grus cinerea is not uncommon 
in many parts of Mesopotamia, and is plentiful in South 
Persia. 
(32.) The stork (Ciconia alba) is a common feature in 
