412 



THE PELICAN. 



some peculiarity, exaggerated by the ignorant. Thus, 

 the old tradition of its drawing blood from its breast to 

 feed its young ones, or as some ancient authors gravely 

 asserted, to bring them to life again, after serpents had 

 squirted venom into the nest and destroyed them*, 

 originated in the bird's habit of pressing its beak to its 

 breast, in order more easily to disgorge the food it had 

 prepared for them. They have again by others been 

 considered as purveyors of water to the camels, who 

 instinctively seek in the desert for nests of these birds, 



The Pelican. 



which form reservoirs of water, conveyed thither in their 

 pouches, to quench the thirst of their young. True it 

 is, that the pouch of the Pelican is capable of carrying 

 about two gallons, but it is for the conveyance of fish 

 rather than water, that it is serviceable to the bird; and 

 were it ten times more capacious, the dry and parched 

 sand of the burning desert would soon suck up a supply 

 so insignificant for an animal which, at one draught, 



* Eusebius on Psalm cii. 



