Cuckoo

Cuckoo is the rendering in the King James Version of the Hebrew shahaph (from a root meaning to be lean or slender) in Leviticus 11:16 and Deuteronomy 14:15, where it is listed among the unclean birds Israel was forbidden to eat. The identification of this Hebrew bird name with the European cuckoo is uncertain — the term may refer to a sea gull, petrel, or some other slim coastal bird. Modern translations often render shahaph as sea gull.

The exact identification matters little for the theological content of the dietary laws, which the New Testament treats as fulfilled in Christ and abrogated for the believing community through Peter's vision of clean and unclean animals (Acts 10:11–16) and Paul's teaching in Colossians 2:16–17 that food regulations were shadows pointing to Christ. The cuckoo/seagull occupies a minor place in the catalogue of unclean creatures.