The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records, 111 
most of the Falconidse ; but it might merit the name of terror 
of heaven, perhaps, because it feeds on the combs of the bee 
and the contained larvae, as well as on the bees and other 
hymenopterous insects. 
(57.) Pea-fowl were probably known to the ancient 
Assyrians, and the word S^ffl^ >^YT < T fcJ^>W ( ex P resse( ^ 
ideo graphically by ^£JSj^-£), urinnu, has been translated a 
" peacock," and the plural, urinni, "pea-fowl." M. Lenormant 
has shown that urinnu is the name of the character ; 
but that some living creatures are also intended is shown by 
a passage in the inscription of Tiglath Pileser, W.A.I., I, 15, 
1. 57. This monarch speaks of himself as the descendant 
of Adar-pal-esir sa oiu-ba-lu-Su ci-ma u-ri-in-ni eli md-ti-su 
sa-par-ru-ru" "who destroyed his enemies (?) like urinni over 
the country." The passage is a difficult one, but in the 
absence of the D.P. or D.S. for " birds, it is not certain that 
any kind of birds are meant. Norris, p. 297, for varini or 
varinni, translates "Peacocks," and compares the Heb. D^JJ^, 
" screaming birds." I should state that pea-fowl, though 
they may have been known to the Assyrians, and kept in their 
aviaries or ornamental gardens, are very unlikely birds to occur 
in a wild state — a condition required by the Assyrian 
monarch's words — in any part of the countries known to 
them. The genus Pavo is found from the Himalayas to 
Ceylon, in Siam, south-west China and Java, but not so far 
north and west as Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries. 
It now only remains for me to notice the different names 
of birds' nests, eggs, and young, which we find in the texts 
or records : but before I do this I have a few remarks to make 
on the determinative prefixes or affixes which occur. The 
character >~Y<Y ? which has the phonetic values of khu and pak 
— the former signifying " bird" in a general sense, the latter 
referring to something which pertains to birds, as e.g., their 
flight, 1 — is in the Accadian lists of birds always present as a 
determinative affix ; see W.A.I., II, 27 ; V, 27. In the 
1 See W.A.I., V, 29, 63, *e-ii-ru sa itstsur, " the direct flight of birds " ; 
Haupt, " Accad. and Sumer. Keilschrif .," IV, p. 172. 
