50 The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
made use of such imitative words to a considerable extent to 
express different kinds of birds in their ornithological voca- 
bulary. In some cases the resemblance of the name thus 
formed to the actual voice of the bird is self-evident, as for 
instance in the simple and easily simulated note of the 
cuckoo, the name of the bird almost everywhere wherever it 
is known. Similarly our peewit, or the Arabic tadwit, or the 
French dix-huit, discloses at once the bird intended by the 
name. But though it is, perhaps, generally the case that we 
may be able to say whether such or such a name, be it Acca- 
dian or Assyrian, Greek or Latin, or in other languages, is 
or is not meant to be imitative of a bird's voice, it is not 
easy to say ivhat bird is actually denoted, partly because many 
birds of different kinds utter not very dissimilar notes, partly 
because it is not easy for the unpractised voice to utter 
ornithic sounds in human language, and partly, also, because 
the same notes sound differently to different ears. 
Practised persons can sometimes most successfully imitate 
bird-voice, and counterfeit their call-notes so admirably as to 
deceive the birds themselves ; but even such persons would 
find it a difficult matter to put into writing such a well-chosen 
selection of syllables as to express in any natural way the 
sound of the notes they had themselves learned so closely to 
imitate. The toroto-tinx, toroto-tinx, popopoi-popopoi of the 
birds of Aristophanes, can but give a very faint idea of the 
sounds uttered by a chorus of feathered songsters. Similarly, 
the imitative words in the Assyrian lists can but give us a 
very imperfect notion of the bird-voices which the names 
thus formed are intended to represent. Sibilants, speaking 
generally, are meant to express the chirping or warbling 
notes of the song birds, while gutturals will give us the harsh 
notes of some croaking raven or crow. 
I have already stated that the references to birds in the 
records are few in number and almost destitute of informa- 
tion, consequently there are many questions relating to our 
subject which at present will have to remain either wholly 
unanswered or only partially responded to. What birds 
were domesticated, what kinds used as food, what methods 
did they employ to kill or take captive living birds? Did 
