BITTERN ( Isaiah 14:23; Isaiah 34:11 , Zephaniah 2:14 ). Although the bird of this name the Botaurus stellaris is found in Palestine, especially in the Huleh marshes, the philological evidence is quite against this translation. The Heb. word is kippôd , and is generally accepted to be the equivalent of the Arab. [Note: Arabic.] kunfudh , ‘ porcupine .’ This animal suits the Scriptural requirements at least as well as the bittern. It (the Hystrix cristata ) is common all over Palestine. Large specimens measure as much as 3 ft. from the nose to the tip of the spines. The porcupine is a vegetable-eating, nocturnal animal; it is solitary in its habits, and very timid of man. It glides about in the twilight or starlight in a most weird way, giving vent at times to peculiar short grunts. When roused to self-defence, the porcupine is most dangerous; its erect quills, which pierce like a needle, make it most difficult to capture. In all respects the porcupine is a likely and appropriate inhabitant of desolate ruins untrodden by the foot of man. Porcupine are eaten by both fellahin and Bedouin . E. W. G. Masterman.
Bittern. The word in the LXX, ἐχῖνος, signifies 'hedgehog or porcupine,' and this rendering is preferred by some Hebrew scholars for the Hebrew word. qippod; but as in two of the passages it is mentioned with a bird called the Cormorant, it is more probably a bird, and the description well agrees with the habits of the bittern, for the passages point to desolations because of the judgements of God. Isa. 14:23; Isa. 34:11; Zeph. 2:14. The bittern is a bird that shuns society, and it is at home in any desolate marshy place. The spots and marks on its feathers correspond with the colours of the reeds among which it dwells, so that it escapes observation. Its doleful cry has often been treated as an omen of evil.