Richard Challoner's 1752 version of the Douay–Rheims Bible translates this asīirds resort unto their like: so truth will return to them that practise her. Verse 27:9 of this Greek version of Sira's Hebrew original is This was translated into Greek sometime after 117 BC (probably), and it is this Greek version that has commonly been used, even in the Septuagint used by diaspora Jews. The first known written instance of metaphorical use of the flocking behavior of birds is found in the second century BC, where Ben Sira uses it in his apocryphal Biblical Book of Ecclesiasticus, written about 180–175 BC. This behavior of birds has been observed by people since time immemorial, and is the source of the idiom ("of a feather" means "of the same plumage," that is, of the same species). In nature, birds of the same species in flight often form homogeneous groups for various reasons, such as to defend against predators. The idiom is sometimes spoken or written as an anapodoton, where only the first part ("Birds of a feather") is given and the second part (".flock together") is implied, as, for example "The whole lot of them are thick as thieves well, birds of a feather, you know" (this requires the reader or listener to be familiar with the idiom). The meaning is that beings (typically humans) of similar type, interest, personality, character, or other distinctive attribute tend to mutually associate. Birds "of a feather" (in this case red-winged blackbirds) exhibiting flocking behavior, source of the idiomīirds of a feather flock together is an English proverb.
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