Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
The little owl - cos , the bittern, night-raven or night-owl, according to most interpreters. Some think the onocrotalus or pelican may be intended; for as the word cos signifies a cup in Hebrew, and the pelican is remarkable for a pouch or bag under the lower jaw, it might have had its Hebrew name from this circumstance; but the kaath in the following verse is rather supposed to mean this fowl, and the cos some species of the bubo or owl. See Bochart, vol. iii., col. 272.
The cormorant - shalach , from the root which signifies to cast down; hence the Septuagint , the cataract, or bird which falls precipitately down upon its prey. It probably signifies the plungeon or diver, a sea fowl, which I have seen at sea dart down as swift as an arrow into the water, and seize the fish which it had discovered while even flying, or rather soaring, at a very great height.
The great owl - yanshuph , according to the Septuagint and the Vulgate, signifies the ibis , a bird well known and held sacred in Egypt. Some critics, with our translation, think it means a species of owl or night bird, because the word may be derived from nesheph , which signifies the twilight, the time in which owls chiefly fly about. See Bochart, vol. iii., col. 281.
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