THE PELICAN OF FABLE. 129 



following fable :— " Beyond all birds," he says, " the pelican 

 is fond of her young. The female sits on the nest, guard- 

 ing her offspring, and cherishes and caresses them, and 

 wounds them with loving; and pierces their sides and they 

 die. After three days the male pelican comes and finds 

 them dead, and very much his heart is pained. Driven by 

 grief he smites his own side ; and as he stands over the 

 wounds of the dead young ones, the blood trickles down, 

 and thus are they made alive again." 



Shakespeare has several allusions to the legend in its 

 better-known form. Thus, Laertes says : — 



" To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms ; 

 And like the kind life-rendering pelican, 

 Repast them with my blood." 



It is generally in the gray of the dawn or in the dusk of 

 the evening that the pelicans gather about the savage 

 shores to seek their food in sociable companionship. They 

 proceed, as Nordmann points out, in a systematic fashion, 

 which is apparently the result of mutual deliberation. 

 Having selected a favourable situation, such as a shallow 

 bay with a smooth bottom, they group themselves in a kind 

 of half-circle, with bills turned towards the gTound, and at 

 a distance from one another of ten or twelve feet. With 

 their wings they beat the water hurriedly, and sometimes 

 plunge in up to the middle, gradually returning towards 

 the beach, and driving the fish before them into a suffi- 

 ciently narrow chamiel. Then the feast begins; and so 

 abundant is it as generally to attract and satisfy a crowd 

 of other but less ingenious birds. Thus Nordmann, on one 

 occasion, counted as many as forty-nine pelicans fishing in 



(710) Q 



