“Mole” From Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(dirt thrower). No ground-moles in Palestine. Chameleon or lizard (Lev. 11:30); and rat or weasel (Isa. 2:20).
“Swan” From Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
Swans rare in Palestine
Unclean (Lev. 11:18; Deut. 14:16). The original seems to imply some other bird, as the ibis or water-hen.
“Mole” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
1. tinshemeth. An animal classed among the unclean, but it is not known definitely what animal is meant by the Hebrew word. It is probably the chameleon, which is adopted in the RV. It is placed with the lizard and the snail (Lev. 11:30). In two places the same word is translated “swan” (Lev. 11:18; Deut. 14:16).
Chameleon
2. chapharperah. This is by most identified with the mole-rat, the spalax typhlus. It is very like a mole: it burrows under the earth and turns up mounds, but it is of a different order from the true mole. These mole-rats have been found in Palestine; they inhabit ruins and stone-heaps, and come out in the night. They may be well classed with the bats to which the idols will be cast in a future day (Isa. 2:20).
Spalax microphthalmus
“Swan” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
The Hebrew word is tanshemeth, and is mentioned among the unclean birds. The swan has been seen in Palestine, but it is rare, and, as it feeds on vegetation, it is supposed that some other bird is alluded to. The LXX and the Vulgate have the porphyrio and ibis. The RV has “horned owl” (Lev. 11:18; Deut. 14:16). Probably some water fowl is referred to, and the purple waterhen, of the Rallidae family, is a bird that would necessarily be condemned as unclean because of its feeding upon reptiles as well as birds: it seizes its prey by its long toes and conveys it to its mouth. It frequents the marshes bordering the Mediterranean.
The Purple Swamphen
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Transliteration:
tanshemeth
Meaning:
from 5395; properly, a hard breather, i.e. the name of two unclean creatures, a lizard and a bird (both perhaps from changing color through their irascibility), probably the tree-toad and the water-hen