Cuckoo
Cuckoo
(שִׁחִŠ, shach'aph, prob. from its leanness; Sept. and Vulg. sea-gull, A.V. "cuckow") occurs only in Le 11:16; De 14:15, among birds of prey not clearly identified, but declared to be unclean. None of the various ancient or modern versions of this word give a bird possessing any affinity with the other species enumerated; and although the cuckoo is a winter and spring bird, distinctly heard, it appears, by Mr. Buckingham, early in April, while crossing the mountains between Damascus and Sidon, at that time covered with snow, it could scarcely deserve to be included in the prohibited list, for the species is everywhere scarce. The identifications proposed by late writers on the subject all equally lack a sufficient foundation. Bochart (Hieroz. vol. 2, c. 18) thinks the sea-gull is meant. Upon the whole, while so much obscurity still remains on the subject, the interpretation of "cuckoo" may as well remain undisturbed. (See Penny Cyclopoedia, s.v.) The word shachaph was a good imitation of the dissyllabic voice of this bird, as our word cuckoo, variously repeated in all European languages, and yakoob, which the bird is supposed by the Arabs to utter. The latter, indeed, call it tir el-Yakub, or "Jacob's bird," on this account (Kitto, Phys. Hist. of Palest. p. 403). The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is a bird of considerable size, unfit for food, because habitually feeding on reptiles and large insects. It is spread over the whole of Asia and Africa as well as Europe, migrating northward in spring, and probably not breeding in Palestine, although passing the winter there. The American cuckoo (Erythiophris Americanus), often called "cow-bird," is a different species of the family of the Cuculinoe, all the members of which are distinguished by laying their eggs in the pests of other birds, and rearing no young themselves.
