The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 75 
not familiar with the notes of the nightingale, for those of that 
bird ; and I have frequently been called np at night time in 
summer to listen to the song of the sedge-warbler, whose notes 
have been thus mistaken. I cannot help thinking, therefore, 
that the claims of this little bird to represent " the water 
songbird of the night," are certainly equal to, if not better, 
than those of the nightingale; if the sedge - warbler is a 
native of Mesopotamia. 
(15.) The oriole or golden thrush (Oriolus galbula) is 
very probably denoted by the Assyrian words ma-ae-lat 
up -la v-lQ V" >-£:|) and khu - ra - tsd - ni - tuv 
(>~Y<Y E^yj i^JEQ ; mdclat is the participle of a-ca-lu, 
" to eat " (Heb. ^5^), and up-lu is a " worm " or vermiform 
creature, as the larva of an insect : it is to be referred to the 
Arabic root ^Ls " pediculos venatus fuit," hence any small 
worm-like creature found in chinks or holes ("\?S " to 
cleave"). Mdelat upla then signifies "a worm -eater." 
Khuratsanituv is from the Assyrian word khurats, "gold" 
(Heb. Y*nn)' and the whole name would be " the golden 
coloured worm-eater." This answers to the golden oriole, 
whose food consists of caterpillars, worms, and insects, as 
well as fruit, of which, like its relative the thrush, it is very 
fond. The Accadian part left is MU UN DU, which is pro- 
bably " a worm." 
(16.) "The bird of the papyrus," its-tsur ci-i-si 1 
KIhJ »-£ **~TI)' * s evidently a singing or chirping 
bird; from its other name, tsi-tsil-du (^.^f * — TTTT* — ^T)' 
some warbling bird of the reeds is denoted, and no more 
suitable one can be found, I imagine, than the reed warbler 
(Salicaria amndinacea), whose singularly constructed nest, 
supported by four or five stems of the large reed (Arundo 
phragmitis), or on those of the papyrus, must have been 
observed by the Assyrians, who appear to have taken special 
notice of the various kinds of reeds and tall grasses common 
to the marshy places of the lowlands of Mesopotamia. 2 The 
1 The Accadian is gi-zi (^f^ HfT^)> from wnicn is borrowed. In 
W.A.I., V, 32, 62, cisu is explained as " the reed of Egypt," i.e., the papyrus. 
2 See the long lists of reeds and grasses in W.A.I. , V, 32 ; II, 24. 
