The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 45 
name. This has to be taken into consideration. But still, 
as a rule, we must take care that the philological information 
conveyed by a name should be not contradictory to zoo- 
logical fact. If, for instance, the meaning of a name points 
to a long-legged creature, and we identify that creature 
with a short-legged one, the evidence supplied by philology 
and natural history facts is contradictory and our identifica- 
tion false. This is an extreme illustration of what I mean; 
but caution is necessary in all our attempts to discover the 
meaning of the various names which in ancient times, 
whether in Asiatic records or in the works of the classical 
writers of Greece and Rome, were used for some mammal, 
bird, reptile, fish, insect, or other creature. If we identify 
any bird or other animal-name with some species which is 
known never to have existed — I speak, of course, within 
historical, or at least post-pa laeontological times — in the 
districts indicated, or which it is extremely improbable ever 
could have there existed, such identification must be 
erroneous. If evidence afforded historically by description, 
or philologically by the simple meaning of a name, point to 
some strong and fierce creature, and we refer the name to 
some animal which is almost harmless, our conclusion is 
wrong. But philological evidence, when taken by itself, may 
be misleading, and identity of sound between names in 
allied languages be no proof of the identity of the animal. 
It is also very important to bear in mind such a thing as the 
geographical distribution of animals in our attempts at 
identification as I mentioned just now. Again, birds or other 
animals may have existed within, comparatively speaking, 
recent historical times, in certain localities, and be no longer 
found there now; the absence of a certain creature in a 
particular area does not of necessity forbid the possibility of 
its existence there in early days ; still there must be more or 
less probability of such an occurrence, a probability based on 
what we know of the actual conditions necessary for the 
maintenance and well-being of the life of such and such an 
animal. We must have regard to what knowledge we possess 
of the geographical distribution of animals, and thus compare 
the known present with the probable past. 
