TINSHEMETH (rmc;:n). This name has already been referred to tbe chammleon,' but there is no doubt that it also denotes a bird ; for it occurs in the enumeration of unclean species which the law forbade to be eaten, and we are not at liberty to presume that a lizard could be meant, where all the others are positively flying creatures (Lev. xi.
; Dent. xiv. 16). Bochart, with his usual learning, endeavours to prove it to be a species of owl ; but in that case not less than three species of owls would be enumerated in the series, while many other birds that cannot well be assumed to be clean would be omitted. The Sept. and the Vulgate understand a water-fowl to be meant, the first rendering it 7ropOuptcov, and the second, not com prehending the meaning of this designation, render ing it swan.' Giggeius wavered between these two ; and Dr. Alason Harris, seemingly not better informed, and confounding the American red species with the white one of Africa, guessed that porphy rion must mean the flamingo.' The swan, for which some recent scholars contend, asserting that it was held sacred in Egypt, does not occur, so far as we have ascertained, in any Egyptian ancient picture, and is not a bird which, in migrating to the south, even during the coldest seasons, appears to proceed further than France or Spain, though no doubt individuals may be blovm onwards in hard gales to the African shore. We recollect only two instances of swans being noticed so far to the south as the sea between Candia and Rhodes : one where a traveller mentions his passing through a flock reposing on the sea during the night ; the other recorded by Hasselquist, who saw one on the coast of Egypt ; but we conjecture that they mistook pelicans for swans, particularly as the last men tioned are fresh-water birds, and do not readily take to the true salt sea. IVe prefer the rendering
of the Sept., because the porphyrion, or purple gallinula, cannot have been unknown to the tmns lators, as it was no doubt common in the Alex andrian temples, and was then, as it is now, seen both in Egypt and Palestine. The circumstance of the same name being given to the chamxleon may have arisen from both having the faculty of changing colours, or being iridescent ; the first when angry becoming green, blue, and purple— colours which likewise play constantly on the glossy parts of the second's plumage. The porphyrion is superior in bulk to our water-hen or gallinula, has a hard crimson shield on the forehead, and tlesh-coloured legs ; the head, neck, and sides are of a beautiful turquoise blue, the upper and back parts of a dark but brilliant indigo.
The porphyrion is a remarkable bird, abounding in the southern and eastern parts of Europe and Western Asia, feeding itself standing on one leg, and holding its food in the claws of the other. It was anciently kept tame in the precincts of pagan temples, and therefore perhaps was marked unclean, as most, if not all, the sacred animals of the heathens were. We subjoin a figure of parphyrio hyacin thinns, the species most common in Europe, al though there are several others in Asia and Africa ; 41Parphyrio erythropts, abundant on the south-east coast of Africa, appears to be that which the pagan ptiests most cherished.—C. H. S.