Swan

The rendering of the Authorized Version for "tinshemet" (Lev. xi. 18; Deut. xiv. 16). The Revised Version, more correctly, gives "horned owl" (see Lizard; Mole; Owl).

Two species of swan have been found in Palestine, the whooper, or wild swan (Cygnus musicus, or ferus), and the Cygnus olor, or mansuetus; they are, however, comparatively rare.

Some take the "barburim abusim" of the Talmud (B. M. 86b) to mean "swans," though the usual rendering is "fattened hens."

Bibliography:

  * Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 249;
  * Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, p. 194.



E. G. H. I. M. C.