Poultry plentiful in Palestine at the present day--The Domestic Fowl unknown in the early times of Israel--The eating and gathering of eggs--References to Poultry in the New Testament--The egg and the scorpion--The fatted fowl of Solomon--The hen brooding over her eggs--Poultry prohibited within Jerusalem--The cock-crowing 421 THE PEACOCK. The foreign curiosities imported by Solomon--The word _Tucciyim_ and its various interpretations--Identity of the word with the Cingalese name of the Peacock--Reasons why the Peacock should have been brought to Solomon--Its subsequent neglect and extirpation 425 THE PARTRIDGE. The word _Kore_ and its signification--The Partridge upon the mountains--David's simile--The Desert Partridge and its habits--Hunting the Partridge with sticks--Eggs of the Partridge--A disputed reading, and probable signification of the passage--Egg-hunting in Palestine--The various species of Partridge--The Francolin and the Sand-grouse 426 THE QUAIL. Signification of the word _Selâv_--Various passages in which the word is mentioned--The locust, the stork, and the sand-grouse--Spreading the birds around the camp--Migration of the Quail--Drying the Quails for food--Modes of catching the Quail in the East--The Quail-hunters of Northern Africa--Quarrelsome nature of the bird--Quail-fighting in the East--How the Quails were brought to the Israelites 430 THE RAVEN. Signification of the word _Oreb_--The Haven tribe plentiful in Palestine--The Raven and the dove--Elijah and the Ravens--Various explanations of the circumstance--Feeding the young Ravens--Luis of Grenada's sermon--The white Raven of ancient times--An old legend--Reference to the blackness of the Raven's plumage--Desert-loving habits of the Raven--Its mode of attacking the eye--Notions of the old commentators--Ceremonial use of the Raven--Return of the Ravens--Cunning of the bird--Nesting-places of the Raven--The magpie and its character--The starling--Its introduction into Palestine--The Rabbi perplexed--Solution of the difficulty 439 THE OSTRICH. Hebrew words designating the Ostrich--Description of the bird in the Book of Job--Ancient use of Ostrich plumes--Supposed heedlessness of eggs and young--Mode of depositing the eggs--Hatching them in the sand--Natural enemies of the Ostrich--Anecdote of Ostriches and their young--Alleged stupidity of the Ostrich--Methods of hunting and snaring the bird--The Ostrich in domestication--Speed of the Ostrich--The flesh of the bird prohibited to the Jews--Ostrich eggs and their uses--Food of the Ostrich--Mode of drinking--Cry of the Ostrich, and reference made to it in Micah 450 THE BITTERN.