Swan

The swan appears in the Authorized Version's list of unclean birds that Israelites were forbidden to eat (Lev. 11:18; Deut. 14:16), translating the Hebrew tinshemeth. The identification is uncertain: the Revised Version renders it "ibis" or "horned owl," and most modern translations follow the latter. True swans (Cygnus) do occur as occasional winter visitors to the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee, but they are rare, which may explain the difficulty in identifying the Hebrew term with certainty.

If the swan is the correct identification, its inclusion among the unclean birds would be based on dietary rather than moral categories — the Levitical distinction is between creatures of different domains and habits rather than a judgment on the bird's character. The swans' rarity in Palestine may have made the term puzzling to later translators.