In The Septuagint we have this bird καταρράκτης that God has forbidden to eat:
• Deuteronomy 14:17
• And in Leviticus 11:16
Some sources suggest that Aristotle and Aristophanes used the word “καταρράκτης” to describe this bird: πουλί Νέτα (or “bird Netta” in English)
Guys please help me identify this bird if you can.
Thank you very much!
Are you asking what the Hebrews who wrote Deuteronomy and Leviticus thought it was, or what the Greeks reading a translation thought it was?
It’s a “dash-downer” bird in Greek. Here’s the LSJ entry:
καταρράκ-της, ου (from καταρράσσω), or κατ-ᾰράκτης (from καταράσσω, cf. Eust.1053.5); ὦ κατᾰράκται Epigr.Gr.979.7 (Philae).
I. as Adj., down-rushing, ὄμβρος Str.14.1.21.
2. sheer, abrupt, τὸν καταρράκτην ὀδόν S.OC1590 (cf. Sch.; καταφράκτην Suid. s.v. ὀδός).
II. as Subst., waterfall, cataract, esp. of the Nile, D.S.1.32, 17.97, Str.17.1.2 and 49, Epigr.Gr. l.c.:—Ion. Καταρρήκτης, name of a river in Phrygia, Hdt.7.26.
2. portcullis, Plu.Ant.76, Arat.26, D.H.8.67.
3. trap-door, οἱ κ. τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἠνεῴχθησαν LXXGe.7.11, cf. 4 Ki.7.2.
4. movable bridge, for boarding ships, App.BC5.82; for attacking elephants, D.H.20.1.
5. sluice, Hld.9.8.
6. a sea-bird, prob. so called from swooping down upon its prey, Ar.Av.887, Arist.HA509a4, 615a28, Juba 68a, Dionys.Av.2.2, 3.22; cormorant, Hebr.shālâkh, LXXDe.14.16(17), al.; of an eagle, S.Fr.377; of the Harpies, ib.714.
And do you mean νῆττα instead of νέτα?
νῆττα, Ep. and Ion. νῆσσα Hdt.2.77, Arat.918, Boeot. νᾶσσα Ar. Ach.875, ἡ:—duck, Hdt.l.c., Ar.Av.566, etc.; νῆττα ἀργυρᾶ IG22.1436.53. (From n̥̄-tyă, cf. Skt. ātis ‘water-fowl’, Lat. anas, anat-is, Lith. ántis ‘duck’, etc.)
The Mediterranean has gannets in the winter. Search for a video of its dives.
Thanx for your answer! I guess it will be very difficult to find out what bird exactly “καταρράκτης” is.
But one of the banned birds in The Septuagint is swan (Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:16)
And it also says not to eat birds that are alike.
So I guess goose and duck is also forbidden to eat?
“The swans’ closest relatives include the geese and ducks.” - Wikipedia.
If a καταρρακτ is a bird, dashing down on it’s prey, it cannot be a cormorant, duck, etc, since they dive from the surface.
The gannet (dashing down with 100 kmh on the surface and diving to catch the prey), or for instance a sea-eagle or an osprey (both diving and grasping they prey just above the surface) are better candidates.
It could just mean “rushing down into the water”, which is what ducks, geese and swans look like they’re doing. Maybe they were associated with “scum-suckers” and “bottom-dwellers”. In any case, the safest course of action to avoid divine punishment is to refrain from eating any fowl, whether foul or unfoul.
I agree 
The classic work, quite wondrous in itself, is D’Arcy Thompson’s Glossary of Greek Birds (a companion to his Glossary of Greek Fishes), available on the Internet Archive for those with an interest in such things. His entry for καταρράκτης is lengthy. It begins “An unknown bird; the references to which are so discordant as to suggest that the meaning was early lost, if indeed the name was ever applied to an actual species.”
That’s enough for me.
PS A more recent work, and even more comprehensive, is Geoffrey Arnott’s Birds of the Ancient World from A to Z. Arnott was a first-rate scholar of ancient Greek (and a personal friend) as well as an expert ornithologist.