894. The Israelites knew about monkeys from their stay in Egypt, because the African baboon was sacred to the god Thoth and was sometimes even kept as a pet. The monkey brought back by Solomon's fleet possibly was the rhesus, the kind most often seen in zoos.
895. Peacocks were the last of the precious cargo mentioned from Ophir, and although the common peacock is native only to southern India and Ceylon, people have spread it around the world. It is hardy and can endure a wide range of climates and living conditions.
896. The Israelites were familiar with quail, for wall paintings in Egyptian tombs dating from the time of the Exodus show that people caught the birds in nets for food. However, they had probably never seen so many of them at one time as when God sent them quail in the wilderness (Exod. 16:13).
897. Migratory quail are short-winged and have only weak powers of flight. They are often blown off course by strong winds and fall exhausted onto the nearest land. God used this very process to cause quail to fall on the Israelite camp. The Bible states that there was a wind that brought the quail from the sea and that the quail fell to earth in the evening.
898. The rooster was a little different from its wild-pheasant ancestor, the red jungle fowl. It was found from Pakistan to Java until recent decades, when new breeds of chickens were developed. The red jungle fowl closely resembles the barnyard chicken both in appearance and in habits, except that it can fly.
899. The chicken may have been domesticated as early as fifty-two hundred years ago in India, The birds were raised at that time for the sport of cockfighting, and were not bred for food until several centuries before the time of Jesus.
