cormorant Summary and Overview

(Lev. 11:17; Deut. 14:17), Heb. shalak, "plunging," or "darting down," (the Phalacrocorax carbo), ranked among the "unclean" birds; of the same family group as the pelican. It is a "plunging" bird, and is common on the coasts and the island seas of Israel. Some think the Hebrew word should be rendered "gannet" (Sula bassana, "the solan goose"); others that it is the "tern" or "sea swallow," which also frequents the coasts of Israel as well as the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan valley during several months of the year. But there is no reason to depart from the ordinary rendering. In Isa. 34:11, Zeph. 2:14 (but in R.V., "pelican") the Hebrew word rendered by this name is "ka'ath". It is translated "pelican" (q.v.) in Ps. 102:6. The word literally means the "vomiter," and the pelican is so called from its vomiting the shells and other things which it has voraciously swallowed. (See PELICAN T0002890.)

the representative in the Authorized Version of the Hebrew words kaath and shalac. As to the former, see PELICAN. Shalac occurs only as the name of an unclean bird in #Le 11:17; De 14:17| The word has been variously rendered. The etymology points to some plunging bird. The common cormorant (phalacrocorax carbo), which some writers have identified with the shalac, is unknown in the eastern Mediterranean; another species is found south of the Red Sea, but none on the west coast of Israel.

COR'MORANT (the plunger), a bird mentioned as unclean in Lev 11:17; Deut 14:17. In two other passages a word meaning the Pelican, which see, is translated "cormorant." The true cormorant is found along the salt and fresh waters of Syria, and is certainly a "plunger," so that there is no reason for a change in the passages of the Pentateuch, as some have suggested. These birds are as large as the raven, of a dark color, with long necks, webbed feet, feed upon fish, and are proverbial for their voracity. See cut on p. 203.

The Pelicanus bassanus, of the family Colymbidoe, order Natatores. Hebrew shalak, i.e. "the diver", from a root "to cast down" itself, or plunge after its prey. Unclean (Leviticus 11:17; Deuteronomy 14:17). Septuagint katarraktes, which Speaker's Commentary makes the "cormorant," Phalacrocorax crabo, often seen in Syria, and occasionally at the sea of Galilee; this the Appendix to Smith's Dict. contradicts. But for "cormorant" in Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14, translated "pelican," Hebrew qa'ath.