Psalms 102:6

I am like a pelican of the wilderness ,.... It may be so called, to distinguish it from another of the same name that lives upon the waters; which has the name of "pelican" in the Greek tongue, as is said, from its smiting and piercing its breast, and letting out blood for the reviving of its young; and in the Hebrew language, from its vomiting shell fish it has swallowed down; See Gill on Leviticus 11:18 where the word is rendered a "pelican" as here, and in Deuteronomy 14:17 , the same we call the "shovelard"; but a "cormorant" in Isaiah 34:11 , however, it seems to be a bird of solitude, and therefore the psalmist compares himself to it. According to Isidore F7 Origin. l. 12. c. 7. , it is an Egyptian bird, that inhabits the desert of the river Nile, from whence it has the name of Canopus Aegyptus:

I am like an owl of the desert ; or "of desert places"; so the Tigurine version; it is translated "the little owl" in Leviticus 11:17 . It delights to be on old walls, and in ruined houses, and cares not to consort with other birds, and it makes a hideous sorrowful noise F8 "Solaque culminibus ferali carmine Bubo, saepe queri----", Virgil. Aeneid. 4. . Jarchi renders it the hawk, but that, as Kimchi F9 Sepher Shorash. rad. כוס . observes, is found in habitable places. Bochart F11 Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 2. c. 20. col. 275, 276. thinks the "onocrotalos" is meant, a bird so much of the same kind with the pelican, that they are promiscuously used by learned men; and which is a creature, as Jerom F12 Comment. in Esaiam, c. 34. fol. 64. A. says, that is used to dwell in desert places; and Isidore F13 Ut supra. (Origin. l. 12. c. 7.) observes, that there are two sorts of them, one that lives in the water, and another in the desert; it has its name from its braying like an ass; and Aelianus F14 De Animal. l. 16. c. 4. speaks of a bird of this sort in India, which has a large crop like a sack; and the Hebrew word "cos" here used signifies a cup or vessel, from whence it may have its name; and which he says makes a very disagreeable noise, to which the psalmist may compare the voice of his groaning, Psalm 102:5 .