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as relates to their feet; their rumination is a distinct character; but a character absolutely unavailing without the more obvious and evident marks derivable from the construction of their members.

We may, I think, consider the animals mentioned in this passage, as instances of a rule designed for general application, which excludes, 1st, All whose feet are not, by one cleft, thoroughly divided into two parts, as the CAMEL. 2dly, All whose feet, though thoroughly divided by one cleft into two parts externally, yet internally by the construction of their bones differ from the character of the permitted kinds, as the SWINE. 3dly, All whose feet are thoroughly divided by two clefts into three toes, as the SAPHAN. 4thly, All whose feet are thoroughly divided by three clefts into four toes, as the HARE; and therefore à fortiori, if there be any animals whose feet are divided into five toes, they are so much further removed from the character requisite to permission. [Vide the BAT, and Plate.]

It is proper to recollect, that the quality of rumination is one character necessary to lawfulness, yet the saphan, though it ruminates, is proscribed; and the hare, though in some of its varieties it may ruminate, yet is the whole species unclean by reason of the construction of its feet. This, then, seems to be the legislative naturalist's most obvious distinction; a distinction which the eye of the unlearned can appropriate at sight, and therefore it is adapted to public information.

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and gristly nature, and are not supported by bones or other permanent connections, whereby they might become parts of the solid structure of the animal. The general properties and services of this creature, its adaptation to the sands of the desert, its capability of carrying great weights, its long endurance of thirst, its docility and its irascibility, are very well known.

No. 3. Is the upper part of the foot of a camel, shewing a sulcus, or kind of groove like division, running down it, but not entirely dividing it.

No. 4. Is the under part of the same foot, shewing that there is a corresponding line on the sole of the foot to the line above; but it is partial and feebly marked; so that the foot can by no means be said to be divided or cloven: and this want of entire division is a character which renders it unclean.

No. 5. If the camel is unclean, by reason of the want of entire division in its hoofs, in this number we find the hare is unclean, by reason of too many divisions in its feet. sions in its feet. We have no need to enlarge on an animal so well known; but we have given, in

No. 6. The bones of the foot of a hare, shewing the entire division of this member into four parts, which, being more than the law ascribes to clean animals, renders this animal unclean by too much separation, as the camel was unclean by too little.

No. 7. This is a figure of the wild boar, which is usually thought to be the parent of the swine kind. It inhabits Asia as well as Europe, and retains its characters and manners in almost every climate. On the feet we remark, that though their outward appearance be like that of a cloven footed animal, yet that internally they have the same number of bones and joints as animals which have fingers and toes; so that the arrangement of their feet bones is into first, and second, and third phalanges, or knuckles, no less than that of the human hand. Besides, therefore, the absence of rumination in the hog kind, its feet are not accordant with those of such beasts as are clean, according to the Levitical regulations.

OF UNCLEAN BIRDS. LEVITICUS XI. 13, &e.

WHEN Considering in its place the passage before us, which refers to birds whose nature renders them unclean, we divided them, as we presumed was the intention of the sacred writer, into three distinctions: 1st, Those of the land; 2dly, those of the air; 3dly, those of the water. This distribution appears to be founded in reason and propriety, and on this occasion also we shall conform to it. [Vide EXPOSITORY INDEX, on Levit. xi. 13, &c.]

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE OF UNCLEAN LAND BIRDS.

No. 1. The OSTRICH. This bird has heretofore been the subject of our inquiries, [FRAGMENT, No. 144;]

and we have no hesitation in desiring that it may be substituted for the owl, wherever the "daughter of screams" is mentioned by the sacred writers. That this is a bird of the desert, a bird in some respects inconsiderate and stupid, is well known. We are

No. 2. The night owl, or SCREECH OWL. not without difficulty in determining this bird, which is the second of the Hebrew writer. It is usually understood to be a night bird; there are, therefore, few birds to be set against it: the goat sucker, or night swallow, might be thought of; but the story of its sucking goats is a fable: and yet we want a voracious land bird, by consent of all versions and interpreters. The genus of owls is sufficiently

numerous, important, and generally distributed, to render it very likely to be noticed on a legislative occasion like the present; and upon the whole, an owl of some kind may safely be taken for the bird designed by the sacred writer. We presume, therefore, that our figure of the screech owl may be accepted as a fair representation of the genus.

No. 3. The rhaad, or saf-saf, from Dr. Shaw. We have nothing to add to the extract given, in loc. from the Dr. but to wish for more satisfactory information on the subject of this bird.

No. 4. The ABOU-HANNES of Bruce, which he supposes to be the ancient ibis of Egypt. Many circumstances concur to support this opinion; and we suppose that its plumage may differ a little in Ethiopia from what it might be in Egypt. For ancient representations of the ibis from Egyptian pictures, vide plate to FRAGMENT, No. 128.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE OF UNCLEAN AIR BIRDS.

No. 1. The EAGLE. This is usually placed first by naturalists in the order of rapacious birds: it possesses immense powers of flight, and strength of limbs. It has a strong hooked bill, the base of it covered by a cere, or naked skin. The golden eagle, which is the kind given in our print, weighs about twelve pounds: is in length three feet; extent of wings seven feet four inches; bill three inches long, of a deep blue colour; cere, yellow; irides, hazel; sight and smell, very acute; her eyes behold afar off, as is remarked, Job xxxix. 27. in which passage the natural history of the eagle is finely drawn up.

Is it at thy voice the eagle rises?

And therefore maketh he his nest on high?

The rock he inhabits;

And he abides on the crag of the rock, and on the place of strength:
From hence he pounces on the prey;
His eyes inspect afar off;
Even his young suck down blood;

And wherever is slaughter there is he.

This description almost supersedes the necessity of further information. Eagles are very destructive to fawns, lambs, kids, and all kinds of game, particularly in their breeding season. It is very unsafe to leave infants in places frequented by these birds, there being instances of eagles carrying them away. It is a long lived bird; Keysler mentions an eagle which had lived in confinement at Vienne one hundred and four years; but when the Psalmist says, "thy youth is renewed like the eagle's," he probably refers to the revival experienced by this bird after moulting its feathers.

There are many kinds of eagles; we presume this very name nisser includes several.

No. 2. The vulture. It will be seen, in loc. that there is some hesitation in taking the second bird of the Hebrew writer's list for the vulture. The usual idea of the Hebrew name peres is that of breaking, separating into bits: and besides what is said of the ossifrage, or bone breaker; of its prey, we are informed, that "the ospray, or bone breaker, procellaria maxima, has a very remarkable beak, which appears as if it was fractured, or composed of several pieces, like joints: I suppose it to be a bird of prey, as we found the legs, wings, and other parts of small birds in its stomach," Cox's Voyage to the South Sea, p. 9. It was but fair to insert this remark, because this conformation of its beak seems to strengthen the propriety of its name; and if this be adopted, we must then say the vulture is included among the eagles of the former number: which seems indeed plausible from the expression of Micah, i. 16. "Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle;" [nesher,] if the nakedness of the neck of the vulture be here referred to. Against this we reply, that baldness is a privation of hair from the pate, or upper part of the head; whereas the vulture, though bare of feathers, is not absolutely without a downy kind of covering; and that his neck is bare, not his head, which is the proper seat of baldness. And as the prophet directs to a token of mourning, to have made the neck bare like that of a vulture would not have answered his idea. Moreover, in justification of the prophet, we should inquire whether a proper baldness may not be found among genuine eagles; and this indeed is fact.

Mr. Bruce, in his Travels, vol. v. p. 155. has given us an account of an eagle, known in Ethiopia only by the name nisser, eagle; but by him called "the golden eagle;" by the vulgar, abou duch'n, father long beard, from the tuft of hair under his chin: he is a very large bird. "A forked brush of strong hair, divided at the point into two, proceeded from the cavity of his lower jaw at the beginning of his throat. He had the smallest eye I ever remember to have seen in a large bird, the aperture being scarcely half an inch. The CROWN OF HIS HEAD WAS BARE OR BALD, SO was the front where the bill and skull joined." This then is the eagle of the prophet, who advises to extend the baldness of mourning over the whole head, as this bird's baldness occupies not only the crown of his head, but his forehead also.

It may be said likewise, that the habits of the vulture may answer the import of the name peres, as some vultures carry away pieces of flesh from the carcass of a large animal to separate places, and there devour in security. All the Eastern versions render this word in allusion to strength of body, or strength of clans, or rapacity. All which ideas coincide perfectly with the vulture; it is even probable that this class yields birds, in size and rapacity superior

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