Waites Defined KJB has this note for this rendering: Hebrew meaning unknown, possibly an extinct bird; perhaps a sea gull (p. 160). In his tract King James Bible Dictionary, O. Ray Smith defined cuckow as gull. A Bible Word List printed by the Trinitarian Bible Society and A Bible Word List in the back of the Cambridge Standard Text Edition of the KJV both explained cuckoo as gull. The Companion Bible [KJV] has this marginal note: cuckow, probably=sea-gull (p. 147).