Identifier: birdsofbible00stra (find matches)
Title: Birds of the Bible
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Stratton-Porter, Gene, 1863-1924
Subjects: Nature in the Bible
Publisher: Cincinnati, Jennings and Graham New York, Eaton and Mains
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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f their diet, as he did most of the other birds ofabomination. The \ri/rTi!E. The new vtrsion of the liible only mentions the \\\\-ture amono tlu biids of abomination. In the former trans-lations, when Isaiah predicted how the .\lmi<;hty wouldavenge His Church, he said, There shall the vultures begathered, every one with her mate. The revision make.sthis read kites instead of vultures. When we think ofa vulture we mean one of our three s))ecies of large car-rion eaters, most connnonly the black vulture of the South.They are our nearist bird to those that were namtdPharaohs chickens. This was done on account of thefact that in warm Kgyptian country they were so prizedfor their work as scavengers by the residents ol walledcities, villages, and tents of tlu- desert that one of thePharaohs made a law pioviding for the infliction of thedeath penalty on any one killing a \ulture. Ihis stringency of law ioi- the protection of birds inolden times was not confined to 1-gypt alone. The stork
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CORMORANT Coniiorant rising- for fiiffht. lUKDS OF xVBOMIXATIOX 185 ■was ouarclcd by a death ))cna)ty in Thcssaly because ofits efficient work in killiiio- ser))ents. Both Athens andRome had superstitious reverence for any bird buildingon a temple of worship. They tliought the bird claimedthe care of the gods, and so they protected it. Plinygives all the details of the murder, by an enraged mob,of a shoemaker who killed a raven that was hatched ona temple. The ibis was sacred in Egypt. Birds consid-ered good omens and augurs were safeguarded by law, andthe superstitious people were afraid of those of evil omen. There is no connection in our minds between the vul-ture and the kite. AYith us the kite most resembles a greathawk or eagle, and its diet of rats, mice, moles, and youngbirds removes it from our conception of the vultui-c, whichfor the most part watches for the dead, and feasts oncarrion. It is small difference to us which of these birdsoccupy a place in Isaiahs prophecy of

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