The chats {SaxicoUe), represented in Britain by the wheatear, whinchat, and stonechat, are very numerous in the southern parts of the country. At least nine species have been observed, and b\' their lively motions and the striking contrast of black and white in the plumage of most of them, they are the most attractive and conspicuous bird-inhabitants which catch the eye in the hill countrj' of .Judiea, the favorite resort of the genus. Yet tliey are not recognised among the Bed- awin inhabitants by any name to distinguish them from the larks.
The rock-sparrow {Petronin sliillo, Strickl.) is a com- mon bird in the barer portions of Palestine, eschewing woods, and generally to be seen perched alone on the top of a rock or on any large stone. Erom this habit it has been conjectured to be the bird alluded to in Psa. oil, 7, as " the sparrow that sitteth alone upon the house- top;" but as the rock-sparrow, though found among ruins, never resorts to inhabited buildings, it seems more probable that the bird to which the psalmist al- ludes is the i)lue thrush (Peliocnss)/plnis c>/aiieus,Iioie.), a bird so conspicuous that it cannot fail to attract atten- tion by its dark-blue dress and its plaintive monotonous note, and which may frequently be observed perched
PetrocossyphtiH ci/amms.
on houses, and especially on outbuildings, in the villages of Judaja. It is a solitary bird, eschewing the society of its own species, and rarely more than a pair are seen together. Certainly the allusion of the psalmist will not apply to the sociable and garrulous house or tree sparrows (see Tristram, Xat. Hist, of the Bible, p. 202 ; Wood, Bible A 7iim(ik, p. 403).
Among the most conspicuous of the small birds of Palestine are the shrikes (Lanii), of which the red- backed shrike (Lanius colhirio, Linn.) is a familiar ex- ample in the south of England, but tliere represented by at least five species, all abundantly and generally dis- tributed, viz. Enneoctonus rufvs, Bp. ; the wooik-hat shrike, Lanius meridionalis, Linn.; L. minor, Liini.; L. personutus. Tern. ; and Telephoims cucullafiis, (ir.
2. Special Biblical Xotices. — There are but two allu- sions to the singing of birds in the Scriptures, Eccles. xii,4 and Psa. civ, 12, "By them shall the fowls (ri") of the heaven have their habitation which sing among the branches." As the psalmist is here speaking of the sides of streams and rivers (" Bj' them"), he probably had in his mind the bulbul of the country, or Palestine nightingale {Ixos xanthopygins, Hcmpr.), a bird not very far removed from the thrush tribe, and a closely allied species of which is the true bulbul of Persia and India. This lovely songster, whose notes, for volume and variety, surpass those of the nightingale, wanting only the final cadence, abounds in all the wooded districts of Palestine, and especially by the banks of the Jordan, where in the early morning it fills the air with its music.
In one passage (Ezek. xxxix, 4), tsippvr is joined with the epithet U'l'S' (ravenous), which may verv well describe the raven and the crow, both passerine birds, yet carrion-feeders. Nor is it necessarv to stretch the interpretation so as to include raptorial birds, which are distinginshed in Hebrew and Arabic by so many specific appellations.
With the exception of the raven tribe, there is no prohibition in the Levitical law against any passerine birds being used for food ; while the wanton destruction or extirpation of any species was guarded against by the humane provision in Deut. xxii, 6. Small birds were therefore probablv as ordinary an article of con- sumption among the Israelites as they still are in the markets both of the Continent and of the East. The inquire of our Lord, " Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings?" (Luke xii, 6), "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing V"(]Matt. x, 29), points to their ordinary exposure for sale in his time. At the present day the markets of .lerusaletn and Jaffa are attended l)y many " fowlers" who offer for sale long strings of little liirds of various species, chipfiy sparrows, wagtails, and larks. These are also frciiucntly sold ready plucked, trussed ia
SPARROW
010
SPARROW
rows of alviiit a dozen on slender wootlen skewers, and are c.K>ked and eaten like kabobs. See Hackett, Jlltis. of Script, p. ISli.
i. Modes of Caphi re.— It may well excite snrprise how such vast numbers can be taken, and how they can be vended at a price too small to have |iurchased the |Hiwder ret|uired tor shootinj; them. But the gun is never used in their pursuit. The ancient methods of f.iwliii^r to which we lind so many allusions in the Si-riptures are still pursued, and, though simple, are none the less effective. The art of fowling is spoken of no less than seven times in connection with IIBS, e. g. "a bird caught in the snare," "bird hasteth to the snare," " fall in a snare," " escaped out of the snare of the fowl- er." There is also one still more precise allusion, in Eccles. xi,30, to the well-known practice of using ilecoy or call birds, iripci^ 5ijpt«ir»)c tv icaproXXf^. The ref- erence in Jer. v, 27, '• As a cage is full of birds"(C"'S1"), b probably to the same mode of snaring birds.