KIPLING (THomAs), a native of Yorkshire, educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated as B. A. in 1768, and became D. D. in 1784, and filled the office of Deputy Regius Pro fessor of Divinity under Bishop Watson. In 1792 he preached the Boyle Lectures, which were not published. In 1793 he brought out at the Univer sity Press a very handsome edition of the famous Codex Bezce,' with fac-simile types (Codex Beza-, Quadrate's literis, Grav-o-Latinis, 2 vols. fol.), which was immediately assailed with a virulence amount ing to personal hostility by the party which had espoused "the cause of the once notorious Frencl, who was banished the university for Unitarianism, and in whose case Kipling had come forward as promoter, or public prosecutor. Dr. Edwards, the leader of the party, charged him with ignorance and want of fidelity. But though his Prolego mena do not man:fest much accurate scholarship, and he. commits the serious error of printing the cor”ections instead of the original reading of the text, which he relegated to the notes at the end, Tregelles (Introd. to Text. Celt. of N. T.) allows that he 'appears to have used scrupulous exactitude in performing his task efficiently according to the plan which he had proposed to himself.' He was rewarded with the deanery of Peterborough, in which dignity he died in 1822.—E. V.
KIPPOD (1.1p). This name occurs but three times in Scripture (Is. xiv. 23 ; xxxiv. ; and Zeph. 4), and has been variously interpreted— owl, osprey, tortoise, porcupine, otter, and, in the Arabic, bustard. Bochart, Shaw, Lowth, and other great authorities, have supported the opinion that it refers to the porcupine. The main stress of their argument seems to depend upon the com ponent parts of the original word, of which the first syllable is said to be derived from Mr), kana, spine ;' in confirmation of which Bochart, with his wonted learning, cites the Chaldee, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopian names of the porcupine and hedgehog, which apparently confirm his opinion ; but although derivations, when they are supported by apparent identity of meaning in other kindred languages, may satisfy the judgment of mere philo logists, something more will be demanded by naturalists, who, looking for more positive indica tions than apparent synonyma and inferential deri vation, have recourse mainly to the context for the real conditions, which must determine the meaning of disputed terms. Ntriv in Is. xiv. 23, I will make it a possession for tke kippod (bit tern), and pools of water,' etc., the words are plain and natural. Marshes and pools are not the habitation of hedgehogs, for they shun water. In
Is. xxxiv. II, it is said, 'The cormorant (Sterna caspia) and the kippod (bittern) shall possess it, t:te o also and the raven shall dwell in it,' etc. ; that is, in the ruins of Idumrea. Here, again, the version is plain, and a hedgehog most surely would be out of place. Zeph. ii. 14, Both the cor morant (Sterna caspia) and the kippod (bittern) shall lodge in the upper lintels of it ; and their voice shall sing in the windows,' etc. Surely here kippod cannot mean the hedgehog, a nocturnal, grovellino., worm-eating animal, entirely or nearly mute, an'd incapable of climbing up walls • one that does not haunt ruins, but earthy banks in wooded rerrions, and that is absolutely solitary in its habits. 'We thus see that the arguments respect ing kippod, supplied by kephucl, or kephod—for we find these various readings—are all mere specu lations, producing at best only negative results. Those drawn from indications of manners, such as the several texts contain, are, on the contrary, positive, and leave no doubt that the animal meant is not a hedgehog, nor even a mammal, but a bird. Ilence, thoug,h we admit the assumed root of the denomination, still it must bear an interpretation which is applicable to one of the feathered tribes, probably to certain wading species, which have, chiefly on the neck, long pointed feathers, more or less speckled. The Arabian bustard, Otis houlvera, might be selected, if it were not that bustards keep always in dry deserts and uplands, and that they never roost, their feet not admitting of perching, but rest on the ground. We think the term most applicable to the heron tribes, whose beaks are formidable spikes that often kill hawks ; a fact well known to Eastern hunters. Of these Nycli corax Europe-Ens, or common night heron, with its pencil of white feathers in the crest, is a species, not uncommon in the marshes of Western Asia ; and of several species of bittern, Ardea (botanrus) stellaris has pointed long feathers on the neck and breast, freckled with black, and a strong pointed After the breeding-season it migrates and passes the winter in the south, frequenting the marshes and rivers of Asia and Europe, where it then roosts high above ground, uttering a curious note before and after its evening flight, very distinct from the booming sound produced by it in the breeding season, and while it remains in the marshes. Though not building, like the stork, on the tops of houses, it resorts, like the heron, to ruined struc tures, and we have been informed that it has been seen on the summit of Took Kesra at Ctesiphon.— C. H. S.