Swan

The swan appears in older topical indices as one of the birds forbidden as food in the Mosaic dietary laws. In the UPDV, however, the species at this slot in both forbidden-bird lists is rendered as the horned owl. No "swan" is named in UPDV; the topic survives only as a label whose underlying Hebrew term has been translated otherwise.

In the Forbidden-Bird Lists

The first of the two passages stands inside the Levitical roll of detestable birds. Within that list, at the position traditionally rendered "swan," the UPDV reads: "and the horned owl, and the pelican, and the vulture" (Le 11:18). The verse sits in the wider catalogue of detestable birds — eagle, gier-eagle, osprey, kite, falcon, raven, ostrich, nighthawk, seamew, hawk, owls, cormorant, pelican, vulture, stork, heron, hoopoe, and bat (Le 11:13-19).

The Deuteronomic parallel matches: "the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl" (De 14:16). Here too the surrounding catalogue agrees with the Levitical one, and again no swan is listed (De 14:11-18).

A Topic Without a Word

Across the two parallel passages, the only birds named are owls, pelicans, vultures, and other species of the same kind. The umbrella label "swan" therefore carries no UPDV verse that uses the word; it survives in the topical index as a heading for forbidden birds whose UPDV renderings have settled on "horned owl" instead.