OSSIFRAGE

פרס , Lev. xi, 13; Deut. xiv, 12. Interpreters are not agreed on this bird; some read vulture,” others the black eagle,” others the falcon.” The name peres , by which it is called in Hebrew, denotes to crush, to break;” and this name agrees with our version, which implies the bone-breaker,” which name is given to a kind of eagle, from the circumstance of its habit of breaking the bones of its prey, after it has eaten the flesh: some say also, that he even swallows the bones thus broken. Onkelos uses a word which signifies naked,” and leads us to the vulture: indeed, if we were to take the cla es of birds in any thing like a natural order in the pa ages here referred to, the vulture should follow the eagle as an unclean bird. The Septuagint interpreter also renders vulture; and so do Munster, Schindler, and the Zurick versions.