122 The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
Fish of the marsh (frog) crying, which like " bird of heaven 
screaming, &c, over its feet," whether on his reed of the tablet 
(papyrus), or in the claw of the bird (it be seen) ; whether 
on the right hand or on the left it croak, its mouth it opens, 
and its tongue in a balance (?) is weighed" (is an omen). 
u The screaming bird of heaven, which, according to the 
destiny of man, in its beak grows old," may possibly denote 
the eagle ; and I think there is an allusion to the old fable 
mentioned by Aristotle ("Hist. Anim.," IX, 22, 4), that when 
eagles grow old, the beaks become crooked, so that they die 
of famine; "that this bird, as the story goes (iiriXe<yerat 
Be Tt? Kal fjbvOos), was once a man, and that it suffered this 
calamity from its inhospitality to a guest." One or other, or 
both, of the mandibles of some birds occasionally grow as to 
cross one another, and render them unable to feed. This 
is also alluded to by Pliny and other writers: the meta- 
morphosis of men into eagles was a current myth. The 
general meaning may be this : if an old eagle with its 
abnormally twisted beak escape from its perch, or from its 
cage, by removing one of the stakes where it was confined, 
and appear in the city and its canals, uttering shrieks : this 
is an omen. Or the passage may be better translated thus : 
" Bird of heaven which like mankind has a beard on (its) 
chin, (and) is bound over its feet, &c " ; zahidt and cabunnat 
being regarded as permansive forms (pt and pD). Refer- 
ence is, I think, made to the "bearded vulture" (Gypaetus 
barbatus), conspicuous for its black beard and bright red 
eyes, whose aspect when irritated, said to be " perfectly 
diabolical," is likely to have made it a bird of omen. The 
expression, "bound over its feet," may well refer to the 
feathered tarsi, also conspicuous in this bird. 
If a frog, 1 similarly with the old crooked-beaked screaming 
eagle, &c, were heard to croak among the papyrus reeds, or 
seen in the claw of a bird, whether it croaked on the right 
hand or the left of the observer : this is also an omen. 
The "crying" (akhu) (nJlN) of the frog may be literally 
illustrated by a remark made by Pliny ("Nat. Hist.," XI, 65), 
1 This is Mr. Sayce's happy interpretation of the nun tsntsi, " fish of the 
marsh." 
