THE WHITE PELICAN 189 



And the colour that the Pelican displays under 

 these perfect conditions is a revelation. To the 

 most casual it appears pinkish, but to the artistic 

 and observant the brilliance of the carmine-pink 

 revealed in the shadows, and the shell-like delicacy 

 of colour of the feathers seen in full sunlight, is 

 simply charming. I regret, however, that no 

 amount of artistic enthusiasm can ever find any- 

 thing else to praise in its personal appearance, as it 

 really is most desperately ugly. It is said, how- 

 ever, to be virtuous, and is to this day used as a 

 symbol of beautiful self-sacrifice, and as an ecclesi- 

 astical emblem of the feeding of the Holy Catholic 

 Church.^ 



As a child I was much troubled with " the 

 Pelican in the wilderness," but recently have been 

 greatly relieved to hear, on the best authority, that 

 though it says " wilderness " quite distinctly, it 



1 I regret, however, to have to write that this idea of self-sacrifice is 

 really all bunkum. The tradition is, that when hard up, and the oflFspring 

 were calling out for the food that was not, the mother bird would lacerate 

 her own bosom and with her own life-blood feed and save her loved ones. 

 Ages ago some poor, short-sighted man got this extraordinary notion from 

 apparently watching the way the young are fed. The Pelican belongs to 

 an order of birds that disgorges the food it has caught, in this case fish, 

 into the upturned mouths of the young. Had this first short-sighted one 

 only known that the Pelican's Hebrew name Kaath means " to vomit," 

 this bird would hardly have been accredited with virtues it does not 

 possess, or been painted, sculptured, and enshrined in thousands of holy 

 places. 



