Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to themWood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to them
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
The same writer proceeds to mention that the Black Kite unlike the
red species, is very careless about the position of its nest, and
never even attempts to conceal it, sometimes building it in a tree,
sometimes on a rock-ledge, and sometimes in a bush growing on the
rocks. It seems indeed desirous of making the nest as conspicuous as
possible, and hangs it all over with bits of cloth, strips of bark,
wings of birds, and even the cast skins of serpents.
Another species (_Milvus Ægyptiacus_) is sometimes called the Black
Kite from the dark hue of its plumage, but ought rather to retain
the title of Egyptian Kite. Unlike the black kite, this bird is
a great thief, and makes as much havoc among poultry as the red
kite. It is also a robber of other birds, and if it should happen
to see a weaker bird with food, it is sure to attack and rob it.
Like the black kite, it is fond of the society of man, and haunts
the villages in great numbers, for the purpose of eating the offal,
which in Oriental towns is simply flung into the streets to be
devoured by the dogs, vultures, kites, and other scavengers, without
whom no village would be habitable for a month.
* * * * *
Whether the word _raah_, which is translated as Glede in Deut. xiv.
13, among the list of birds which may not be eaten, is one of these
species of Kite, or a bird of a different group, is a very doubtful
point. This is the only passage in which the word occurs, and we
have but small grounds for definitely identifying it with any one
species. The Hebrew Bible retains the word Glede, but affixes a mark
of doubt to it, and several commentators are of opinion that the
word is a wrong reading of _dayah_, which occurs in the parallel
passage in Lev. xi. 14. The reading of the Septuagint follows this
interpretation, and renders it as Vulture in both cases. Buxtorf
translates the word _raah_ as Rook, but suggests that _dayah_ is the
correct reading.
Accepting, however, the word _raah_, we shall find that it is
derived from a root which signifies sight or vision, especially of
some particular object, so that a piercing sight would therefore be
the chief characteristic of the bird, which, as we know, is one of
the attributes of the Kites, together with other birds of prey, so
that it evidently must be classed among the group with which we are
now concerned. It has been suggested that, granting the _raah_ to
be a species distinct from the _dayah_, it is a collective term for
the larger falcons and buzzards, several species of which inhabit
Palestine, and are not distinctly mentioned in the Bible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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