DUKHIPHATH (nvzr), an unclean bird (Lev. xi. 19 ; Dent. xiv. 18). As the word does not occur except in these two passages, our means of identifying the bird whose name it is with any known species are very slender. The LXX. ren dering is foot, the Vulg. upupa, and with these the Arab. agrees. The Targum makes it the Tetrad Urogallus, or mountain-cock, a species of grouse. There is no probability that it is the Lapwing, which is the rendering in the A. V. Bochart argues in favour of the rendering of the ancient versions, and with him most subsequent enquirers have agreed. According to him, the word is a compound of in or ill, cock, and Nt:, rock ; so that the word means gallus rupis, or gallus mon tanus ; and be compares, in support of this, the ex planation of Hesychius, who calls the 6,0,fr axeK Tpubva dypcov, and the fact that iEschylus speaks of it as re-rpcaop llpver (Frag. Incert. 23. 3). To this etymology Gesenius inclines (Thes. in voc.); but Furst remarks that the word is not yet suffi ciently explained, and the root may be 9D-I, to bruise, to tear' (II. IV. B., in voc.) The hoopoe is not uncommon in Palestine at this day, and was from remote ages a bird of mystery. The summit of the augural rod is said to have been carved in the form of an hoopoe's head ; and one of the kind is still used by Indian gosseins, and even Armenian bishops, attention being no doubt drawn to the bird by its peculiarly arranged black and white bars upon a delicate vinous fawn-colour, and further embellished with a beautiful fan-shaped crest of the same colour, tip ped with white and black. Its appellations in all
languages appear to be either imitations of the bird's voice, or indications of its filthy habits ; which, however, modern ornithologists deny, or do not notice. In Egypt these birds are numerous ; forming, probably, two species, the one perma nently resident about human habitations, the other migratory, and the same that visits Europe. The latter wades in the mud when the Nile has sub sided, and seeks for worms and insects ; and the former is known to rear its young so much im mersed in the shards and fragments of beetles, etc., as to cause a disagreeable smell about its nest, which is always in holes or in hollow trees. Though an unclean bird in the Hebrew law, the common migratory hoopoe is eaten in Egypt, and sometimes also in Italy ; but the stationary species is considered inedible. It is unnecessary to give further description of a bird so well known as the hoopoe, which, though not common, is neverthe less an annual visitant of England, arriving soon after the clickoo.'—[C. H. S.] W. L A.