302 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A 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 ' 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, even in late mediaeval days, that 

 there existed none of the ordinary checks on the 

 misstatements of writers. It seems hardly possible 



