ANAPHA (rit"; Sept. xapapt6s; Vulg. =a dryon and caradrium ; Eng. Vers. heron, Lev. xi. 19, and Dent. xiv. IS), an unclean bird, but the particular bird denoted by the Hebrew word has been much disputed. The kite, woodcock, cur lew, peacock, parrot, crane, lapwing, and several others have been suggested. Since the word occurs but twice, and in both instances is isolated, no aid can be derived from a comparison of pas sages.
Recourse has consequently been had to etymo logy. The root amzph signifies to breathe, tc snort, especially from anger, and thence, figura. tively, to be angry. Parkhurst observes that as the heron is remarkable for its angry disposition, especially when bun' or wounded, this bird seems to be most probably intended.' But this equally applies to a great number of different species of birds. Bochart supposes it may mean the moun tain falcon, called cbrovara by Homer (Odys. i. 32o), because of the similarity of the Greek word to the Hebrew. But if it meant any kind of eagle or hawk, it would probably have been reckoned with one or other of those species mentioned in the preceding verses. Perhaps, under all the cir cumstances, the traditional meaning is most likely to be correct, which it will now be attempted to trace.
The Septuagint renders the Hebrew word by xsepoSpz6s. Jerome, who, though professing to translate from the Hebrew, was no doubt well acquainted with the Septuagint, adhered to the same word in a Latin form, caradryon and earn drium. The Greek and Roman writers, from the earliest antiquity, refer to a bird which they call charadrius. It is particularly described by Aris totle Villa, Asa. vii. 7), and by IElian (Hist. An. xv. 26). The latter naturalist derives its name from xapciapa, a hollow or chasm, especially one which contains water, because, he says, the bird frequents such places. It is, moreover, certain, that by the Romans the charadrius was also called ictenis, which signifies the jaundice, from a notion that patients affected with that disease were cured by looking at this bird, which was of a yellow colour (Pliny, xxxiv ; Ccel. Aurel. iii. 5), and by the Greeks, ; and in allusion to the same fabulous notion, in-repos (Aristotle, Hirt. An. ix. 13, 15, and 22 ; /Tian, Hist. An. iv. 47). These rvriters concur in describing a bird, sometimes of a fellow colour, remarkable for its voracity (from which circumstance arose the phrase xapapioii pios, applied to a glutton), migratory, inhabiting watery places, and especially mountain torrents and valleys.
Now, it is certain that the name charadrius has been applied by ornithologists to the same species of birds from ancient times down to the present age. under Order iv. (consisting of
waders or shore birds), places the genus Chara drius ; in which he includes all the numerous species of plovers. The ancient accounts may be advantageously compared with the following de scription of the genus from Mr. Selby's British Ornithology, ii. 230 : 'The members of this genus are numerous, and possess a wide geographical distribution : species being found in every quarter of the globe. They visit the east about April. Some of them, during the greater part of the year, are the inhabitants of open districts and wide wastes, frequenting both dry and moist situations, and only retire toward the coasts during the seise r:ty of winter. Others arc continually resident upon the banks and about the mouths of rivers (particularly whe.e the shore consists of small gravel or shingle). They live on worms, insects, and their larva:. The flesh of many that live on the coasts is unpalatable.' The same writer describes one species, chara drius pluvialis, called the golden plover from its colour,' and mentions the well-known fact that this species, in the course of moulting, turns com pletely black. Analogous facts respecting the charadrius have been established by observations in every part of the globe, viz., that they are grega rious and migratory. The habits of the majority ere littoral. They obtain their food along the banks of rivers and the shores of lakes ; `like the gulls, they beat the moist soil with their pattering feet, to terrify the incumbent worms, yet are often found in deserts, in green and sedgy meadows, or on upland moors.' Their food consists chiefly of mice, worms, caterpillars, insects, toads, and frogs; which of course places them among the class of birds ceremonially unclean.
On the whole, the preponderance of evidence derived from an unbroken chain of well-ascertained facts, seems in favour of the conclusion that the Hebrew word anapha designates the numerous species of the plover (may not this be the genus of birds alluded to as the fowls of the mountain, Ps. r.
; Isa. xviii. 6 ?). Various species of the genus are known in Syria and Palestine, as the C. pluvialis (golden plover, of which a figure is here given), C. cedicizenuis (stone-curlew), and C. spinosus (lap wing). (Kitto's Physical Hist. of Palestine, p. 1o6.) And, in connection with some of the preceding re marks, it is important to observe that in these species a yellow colour is more or less marked.—J. F. D.