QAATH (mq, ; Syr. 1.0.=, gaga ; Arab.
pup ; LXX. ireNEKdv). By this is denoted the Pelican. The name is supposed to be derived from the action of throwing up food, which the bird really effects when discharging the contents of the bag beneath its bill (vomitor, from N)p, Ges.) But it may be suggested, as not unlikely, that all the above names are imitative of the voice of the pelican, which, although seldom heard in captivity, is uttered frequently at the periods of migration, and is compared to the braying of an ass. It may be likewise that this characteristic has influenced several translators of the Hebrew text in substitut ing on some, or on all occasions, where Qaatir occurs, bittern for pelican, but we think without sufficient reason [KIPPon ; BITTERN]. Qaath is found in Lev. xi. IS ; Dent. xiv. 17 ; Ps. cii. 6 ; Is. xxxiv. I i ; Zeph. ii. 14.
Pelicans are chiefly tropical birds, equal or su perior in bulk to the common swan ; they have powerful wings, fly at a great elevation, are par tially gregarious, and though some always remain in their favourite subsolar regions, most of them migrate to our hemisphere with the northern spring, occupy Syria, the lakes and rivers of temperate Asia, and extend westward into Europe up the Danube into Hungary, and northward to some rivers of southern Russia. They likewise frequent salt-water marshes, and the shallows of harbours, but seldom alight on the open sea, though they are said to dart down upon fish from a considerable height.
The face of the pelican is naked ; the bill long, broad, and flat, is terminated by a strong crooked and crimson-coloured nail, which, when fish is pressed out of the pouch, and the bird is at rest, is seen reposing upon the crop, and then may be fancied to represent an ensanguined spot. This may have occasioned the fabulous tale which repre sents the bird as wounding her own bared breast to revive its young brood ; for that part of the bag which is visible then appears like a naked breast, all the feathers of the body being white or slightly tinged with rose colour, except the great quills, which are black. The feet have all the toes united by broad membranes, and are of a nearly orange colour. Pelicamis onocrotalus, the species here noticed, is the most widely spread of the genus, being supposed to be identical at the Cape of Good Hope and in India, as well as in western Asia. It is very distinctly represented in ancient Egyptian paintings, where the birds are seen in numbers con gregated among reeds, and the natives collecting basketfuls of their eggs. They still frequent the marshes of the Delta of the Nile, and the islands of the river high up the country, and resort to the lakes of Palestine, excepting the Dead Sea. With regard to the words of the wilderness or desert,' often added to the pelican's name in consequence of their occurrence in Ps. cii. 6, there is not suf ficient ground to infer from them any peculiar capability in the genus to occupy remote solitudes ; for they live on fish, and generally nestle in reedy abodes ; and man, in all regions, equally desirous to possess food, water, and verdure, occupies the same localities for the same reasons. We think
the Psalmist refers to one isolated by circumstances from the usual haunts of these birds, and casually nestling among rocks, where water, and conse quently food, begins to fail in the dry season, as is commonly the case eastward of the Jordan—such a supposition offering an image of misery and deso lation forcibly applicable to the context —C. H. S.
Sept. 774,o8L; Vulg. perdix, Ecclus. xi. 3o). Late commentators state that there are four species of the tetrao (grouse) of Linnmus abundant in Pales tine ; the francolin (T. francallizus), the katta (T. alchata), the red-legged or Barbary partridge (T. tetrasus), and the Greek partridge (T. saxatilis). In this now obsolete classification there are included not less than three genera, according to the more correct systems of recent writers, and not one strictly a grouse occurs in the number, though the real T. UrogaHz's, or cock of the woods, is reported to frequent Asia Minor in winter, and in that case is probably no stranger in Libanus. There is, however, the genus Pterocles, of which the P. alchata is the katta, ganga, cata, and pin-tailed grouse of authors, a species very common in Pales tine, and innumerable in Arabia ; but it is not the only one, for the sand-grouse of Latham (P. arm. arias) occurs in France, Spain, Barbary, Arabia, Persia, and on the north side of the Mediterranean, or all round Palestine. P. Arabiczts, and probably P. exustus, or the Arabian and singed gangas, oc cur equally in the open districts of the south, peopling the desert along with the ostrich. All are distinguished from other genera of Tetraonidte by their long and powerful wings, enabling them to reach water, which they delight to drink in abundance ; and by this propensity they often indicate to the thirsty caravan in what direction to find relief. They feed more on insects, larvT, and worms than on seeds, and none of the species having a perfect hind toe that reaches the ground, they run fast : these characteristics are of some importance in determining whether they were held to be really clean birds, and consequently could be the selav of the Israelites, which our versions have rendered quail.' [SELAv.] The Francolin forms a second genus, whereof F. vulgaris, or the common tree-partridge, is the Syrian species best known, though most likely not the only one of that country. It is larger than the ganga ; the male is always provided with one pair of spurs (though others of the genus have two), and has the tail longer than true partridges. This species is valued for the table, is of handsome plumage, and common from Spain and France, on both skies of the Mediterranean, eastward to Ben. gal.