SHALACH (TW, Lev. xi. 17 ; Deut. xiv. 17), in common with the usual Greek version Kara pdKrns, is considered to have reference to darting, rushing, or stooping like a falcon ; and accordingly has been variously applied to the eagle, the jer falcon, the gannet, the great gull, and the cor morant. Of the Hebrew Shalach nothing is known regard to the cormorant, birds of that genus are no doubt found on the coasts of Palesdne, where high cliffs extend to the sea-shore ; such, for example, as the Phalacrocarax pygmccus ; but all the species dive, and none of them rush flying upon their prey, though that habit has been claimed for them by commentators, who have mixed up the natural history of cormorants' with that of the sub.' or gannet,' which really darts from great elevations into the sea, to catch its prey, rising to the surface sometimes nearly half a minute after the plunge, as we ourselves have witnessed. But the gannet (solan goose) rarely comes farther south than the British Channel, and does not appear to have been noticed in the Mediterranean. It is true that several other marine birds of the north frequent the Levant; but none of them can entirely claim Aristotle and Oppian's characters of cataractes,' for though the wide throat and rather large head ot the dwarf cormorant may be adduced, that bird exceeds in stature the required size of a small hawk ; and fishes, it may be repeated, swimming and div ing, not by darting down on the wing, and is not sufficiently numerous or important to have required the attention of the sacred legislator. Thus reduced to make a choice where the objections are less and. the probabilities stronger, we conclude the shalath to have been a species of tern,' considered to be identical with the Sterna Caspica, so called be cause it is found about the Caspian Sea ; but it is eqnally common to the Polar, Baltic, and Black Seas, and if truly the sarne, is not only abundant for several months in the year on the coast of Palestine, but frequents the lakes and pools far inland ; flying across the deserts to the Euphrates, and to the Persian and Red Seas, and proceeding up the Nile. It is the largest of the tern or sea
swallow genus, being about the weight of a pigeon, and ncar two feet in length, having a large black naped head ; powerful, pointed crimson bill ; a white and grey body, with forked tail, and wings greatly exceeding, the tips of the tail ; tne feet are very small, weak, and but slightly webbed, so that it swims perhaps only accidentally, but with suffi cient power on land to spring up and to rise from level ground. It flies with immense velocity, dart ing along the surface of the sea to snap at mollusca or small fishes, or wheeling through the air in pur suit of insects; and in calm weather, after rising to a great height, it drops perpendicularly down to near the surface of the water, but never alights ex cept on land; and it is at all times disposed to utter a kind of laughing scream. This tern nestles in high cliffs, sometimes at a very considerable dis tance from the sea. Sterna Nilotica appears to be the young bird, or one nearly allied.
Thus the species is not likely to have been. un known to the Israelites, even while they were in the desert ; and as the black tern, Sterna nigri cans, and perhaps the Procellaria obscura of the same locality may have been confounded with it, their number was more than sufficient to cause them to be noticed in the list of prohibited birds. Still the propriety of the identification of shalach with the great tem ' must in some measure rest upon the assumption that the Greek xarapikrar is the same. We figure one that was shot among a flight of these birds some distance up the river Orontes.—C. H. S.