In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim releases a dove first to find dry land. The bird flies away but returns because it cannot find a place to land.
Utnapishtim then sends out a swallow, which also returns. Finally, he releases a raven; the raven finds exposed ground and does not come back. This sequence signals that the floodwaters have receded enough for the survivors to leave the boat.
The episode resembles the bird-sending scene in the biblical story of Noah, where a raven and then a dove are used to test whether the waters have fallen. The Mesopotamian account is preserved in the flood narrative embedded in the Gilgamesh epic.
The birds are sometimes listed in different translations with slightly varying wording, but the standard sequence is dove, swallow, and raven. The first bird is therefore the dove, not the raven that ultimately confirms dry land.