PEACOCK (Jewish Encyclopedia)
From BibleWiki
Traditional rendering of "tukkiyyim," mentioned among the creatures brought by Solomon's ships from Tarshish (1 Kg 10:22). The peacock is an Indian bird (comp. the Malabar "togai" and the Tamil "tokei" for the "tail" of the peacock; A. V. renders "renanim," Job 39:13, by "peacock"; but see Ostrich). The Talmud uses the term (missing hebrew text) (comp. the Greek ταός), and forbids the crossing of the peacock with the hen (B. Ḳ 55a). From Shab. 130a and parallels, it would appear that, contrary to present conceptions, the peacock was in Talmudic times considered a clean bird.
Bibliography: Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 223; Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, p. 189.
This entry includes text from the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906.
