I1EAEIA— nEAEKAN I35 



nEAEKAN (continued). 



opos o.8t]\ovs yiveadai tovs irporepovs to'ls varrepois. lb. 597 b opvis dye- 

 Xatos, like the crane, the swan, and the little goose. lb. ix. 10, 614 b 

 oi 8e neXeKaves Of iv toIs iroTapols yivopevoi KaTanivovai ras peydXas Koyvas 

 Kai Xcias' orav 8* iv t<3 7rp6 rrjs KoiXlas roVco ne\ffcoo-iv, i&povariv, Iva 

 XaaKovcrcov ra Kpca i£aipovvT(S icrQiaxnv. A similar account in Arist. 

 Pe Mirab. 14, 831 b ; Antig. Hist. Mirab. 41 (47) ; Ael. iii. 20, 23, v. 35 ; 

 Apostol. Cent. 15 ; Phile, De An. (9), 215 ; Dion. De Avib. ii. 6 

 Km tis KoXnos avro7s e^rjprrjTai irpb tcov erre'pi/coi/, tit ov airaaav rf]v 

 rpo(pr)v ineiyopevoi recos ipftdXXovaiv, ovre ra>v ktcvcov ovre to>v aKXrjpwv 

 pvwv oTTe^djuei/ot, k. r. X. : cf. Plin. x. 47 (66) faucibus ipsis inest alterius 

 uteri genus. That the Pelican can render up its food from its 

 1 pouch ' was much commented on by the ancients : hence the 

 Hebr. name kaath, lit. 'to vomit.' But the Pelican feeds on fish, 

 not (?) on shell-fish : and moreover P. crispus is common in Greece 

 and is not limited to the north. Hence various writers have doubted 

 the common interpretation, e. g. Gesner, Brandt (Descr. Animal. Rusti- 

 corum, 1836, p. 53), Van der Hoeven (Handb. d. Zool., ii. p. 396) and 

 especially Aubert and Wimmer (op. cit., i. p. 104), who suppose a 

 species of Heron to be meant. But the passage in Dionysius (s. v. 

 TreXeKiyos) is only applicable to the Pelican, and the latter is distin- 

 guished from epooftios in Ael. v. 35, Phile, c. ix, &c. ; the Heron and the 

 Pelican seem however to be confounded by Plutarch, 1. c. 



Cicero (De Nat. D. ii. (49) 124) repeats the story under the name 

 Platalea, and Plin. (x. (40) 56) under that of Platea, names which rather 

 suggest the Spoonbill, to which the account may have been transferred, 

 the Pelican not occurring in Italy (Gallia hos septentrionali proxima 

 Oceano reddit, Plin. x. 47). 



The Pelican and its ' piety,' Ael. iii. 23. Cf. Horap. i. 54 neXtKava 8e 

 ypdcbovres, avow re fj8r] Kai a(ppova o-qpaivovaiv' ineibrj 8vvdpevos iv toIs 

 v\jrr]XoT€pois totvois KaTaTiOeaOai ra eavrov ccd, coanep ko\ ra Xonra tcov 

 7T€TeT]vS>v, tovto oil WOifV dXXa yap Kai dvopv^as yijv, exet KaTariderai ra 

 yevvapeva' onep imyvovres av8pa>noi, tco totv<x> (Boos dqb68evpa £r]pbv 7reprrt- 

 Oeacriv, (o Kai nvp VTrofiaXXovai.' deao'dpevos 8e 6 neXeKav rbv Kanvov, rols 

 l8iois 7TTepois fiovXopevos diroafiia-ai to nvp, iK to>v ivavricov koto, rqv KLvrja-iv 

 ii-anTei avro. v(p' ov KaraKatopevos ra iavrov Tvrepa evovXXrjwTuTfpos rols 

 Kvvrjyols yiverai' 81 rjv air Lav ovk ivopLadt] icrdieiv tovs Upias avrov, eVeiS/) 

 ana^aTrXcbs vrrep tckvoov noielrai tov dyava' AlyvnTioov 8e oi Xonrol iaOLovai, 

 Xiyovres, on p,q koto, vow ttjv pd^^v, coanep oi ^jyi/aXo)7reKfS', dXXa. Kara 

 avoiav 6 neXeKav rroielrai. This statement follows an account of the 

 parental affection of xn va ^<° 1T1 )£ '■> Lauth (Sitzungsb. Bayer. Akad., 1876, 

 p. 105) shows that it is in part based on a confusion between two 

 Egyptian words, chemi, ' a pelican,' and chemi, ' ignorant.' The parental 

 affection of the Pelican is frequently referred to by the Fathers : cf. 



