it signifies the envious man, who refreshes himself with the ills of others, as with snakes.  The swan is bright in color, and by the aid of its long neck extracts its food from deep places on land or water:  it may denote those who seek earthly profit though an external brightness of virtue.  The bittern is a bird of the East:  it has a long beak, and its jaws are furnished with follicules, wherein it stores its food at first, after a time proceeding to digest it:  it is a figure of the miser, who is excessively careful in hoarding up the necessaries of life.  The coot [Douay:  _porphyrion._ St. Thomas’ description tallies with the coot or moorhen:  though of course he is mistaken about the feet differing from one another.] has this peculiarity apart from other birds, that it has a webbed foot for swimming, and a cloven foot for walking:  for it swims like a duck in the water, and walks like a partridge on land:  it drinks only when it bites, since it dips all its food in water:  it is a figure of a man who will not take advice, and does nothing but what is soaked in the water of his own will.  The heron [Vulg.:  herodionem], commonly called a falcon, signifies those whose “feet are swift to shed blood” (Ps. 13:3).  The plover [Here, again, the Douay translators transcribed from the Vulgate:  _charadrion;_ _charadrius_ is the generic name for all plovers.], which is a garrulous bird, signifies the gossip.  The hoopoe, which builds its nest on dung, feeds on foetid ordure, and whose song is like a groan, denotes worldly grief which works death in those who are unclean.  The bat, which flies near the ground, signifies those who being gifted with worldly knowledge, seek none but earthly things.  Of fowls and quadrupeds those alone were permitted which have the hind-legs longer than the forelegs, so that they can leap:  whereas those were forbidden which cling rather to the earth:  because those who abuse the doctrine of the four Evangelists, so that they are not lifted up thereby, are reputed unclean.  By the prohibition of blood, fat and nerves, we are to understand the forbidding of cruelty, lust, and bravery in committing sin.

Reply Obj. 2:  Men were wont to eat plants and other products of the soil even before the deluge:  but the eating of flesh seems to have been introduced after the deluge; for it is written (Gen. 9:3):  “Even as the green herbs have I delivered . . . all” flesh “to you.”  The reason for this was that the eating of the products of the soil savors rather of a simple life; whereas the eating of flesh savors of delicate and over-careful living.  For the soil gives birth to the herb of its own accord; and such like products of the earth may be had in great quantities with very little effort:  whereas no small trouble is necessary either to rear or to catch an animal.  Consequently God being wishful to bring His people back to a more simple way of living, forbade them to eat many kinds of animals, but not those things that are produced by the soil.  Another reason may be that animals were offered to idols, while the products of the soil were not.