112 The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
Assyrian lists this determinative does not occur. In the 
Accadian texts the determinative khu is always present. In 
the Assyrian texts, historical or other, the Accadian mono- 
gram >~y<y is of far more frequent occurrence than the 
Assyrian full phonetic form of : Norris says 
"one in a thousand" (Assyf* Diet., p. 370). Where an 
Accadian bird-name is mentioned in the Assyrian amials the 
determinative monogram of ^|<y is generally postfixed ; 
occasionally it is prefixed, as in Botta, III, 8; W.A.I., III, 15, 
col. i, 1. 15 ; sometimes it is omitted, as in Taylor Cylinder, V, 
1. 43. The presence of this determinative is sometimes of 
great use in aiding us to determine whether birds or insects 
are intended by a name ; thus the word for locusts, 'eribi, is 
very like that for ravens (Corvus umbrinus), aribi. In Taylor 
Cylinder* loc. cit (Smith's "Sennacherib," p. 119), we have cimd 
tibut aribi, " like an invasion of aribi." Mr. Smith translates 
"locusts"; but in Assurbanipal (Smith's "History," p. 103) the 
aribi are expressed ideogrammatically, ^y<y^ ^} Hf^I 
the determinative affix, which even by itself is sufficient to 
show that birds and not insects are meant. 1 The ideogram-- 
matic character just mentioned requires a short notice. 
This character >~y<y^ ^ nam bir, is placed as a deter^ 
urinative before some of the names of birds in the Accadian 
lists, but by no means before all. Sometimes this character 
is used in the Assyrian records, as above, for some definite 
well-known birds, as ravens. The distinction between the 
above D.P. for some birds and that used to denote insects, 
viz., *^y<y^ ^} KHU bir j 2 is always maintained. 3 There are 
two apparent exceptions to this rule, but I agree with Dr» 
1 It has been noticed above that a-ri-bu |^ >— YT^T denotes " a raven " ; 
'e-ri-bu HPMf " a l° cus t " 5 an( i this distinction, which Delitzsch has 
pointed out, I believe holds good in all cases where the scribe has not made a 
mistake. 
2 The proper phonetic reading of this character appears to be Khtt eub. 
3 This character sometimes enters into the composition of a name, as in 
Khurub-ba-cu-gusurra Jehu, the " insect (eating) bird, which settles on beams." 
In this country the spotted fly catcher, from its often building on the wood of 
out-buildings, is sometimes provinciallv called " The Beam bird." 
