302 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLA Y 



stops up the other with the end of its tail. Others 

 say that the subtilty of the serpent consists in its 

 agility and suppleness ; or in a secret which it has 

 of recovering its sight by the use of fennel.' 



Beside the impossible stories of the bestiaries 

 are found another set of ' myths ' mainly based on 

 facts, and only distorted by the c uneven mirror ' 

 to which Bacon likened certain phases of the human 

 understanding. ' The pelican fed its young with 

 its own blood.' Pelicans have a habit of trimming 

 their breast feathers with their sharp, hooked beak. 

 The plumage is of a pinkish hue, especially on the 

 breast and when the feathers are wet. The ' moral ' 

 supplied the rest. ' Young bears suck their paws 

 for food/ Bear-cubs do suck their paws, making 

 an odd humming noise the while ; the Caucasian 

 bear-cubs at the Zoo did so till they were three 

 months old ; and though bears do not ' lick their 

 young into shape/ which Sir Thomas Browne 

 questioned on a priori grounds, the Polar bears do 

 hibnerate when pregnant, and produce very small 

 cubs, which they nourish under the snow, according 

 to the evidence of Eskimo hunters. Popular ignor- 

 ance on what is now the commonplace of natural 

 history was such r even in late mediaeval days, that 

 there existed none of the ordinary checks on the 

 misstatements of writers. It seems hardly possible 



