176 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 
variation of the story. Whitney, in his ‘‘ Choice of Em- 
blems,” gives a woodcut illustration of a bird like an eagle 
piercing her breast with her hooked bill, surrounded by the 
young in the nest whose mouths are open to receive the 
blood; the lines below being :— 
The pellican, for to revive her younge, 
Doth pierce her breast, and geve them of her blood. 
This fable in fact served as a symbol of Christ’s love to 
men, and with the substitution of a real Pelican for the 
bird, it exists to the present day in ecclesiastical art. What 
species of bird the eagle or vulture of Whitney and other 
old writers may be is uncertain, but there is little doubt 
indeed that the substitution of the Pelican for the other 
bird in the fable is due to the erroneous idea that the name 
indicated the Pelican and not some other species. In 
fact attempts have been made to account for the legend 
by explaining that the Pelican feeds its young with the 
fish from its pouch, and that during the process the red 
nail or tip of the lower mandible, pressing against the 
breast, might lead an observer to suppose that the bird was 
piercing its own breast. Bartlett (‘Land and Water,” April 
3rd, 1869) made an ingenious attempt to lay the origin of 
the fable upon the Flamingo, which he says disgorges a 
blood-like fluid. The Pelican is not a British bird, although 
several doubtful records of the Great White Pelican 
(P. onocrotalus) in our islands are extant. 
PELLILE: The REDSHANK. (Aberdeen.) From its cry. 
Pren: The female of the MUTE SWAN. (See Cob.) 
Penppu. A Welsh name for the BLACKCAP; lit. “ black 
head.” 
PenpEw: The HAWFINCH. (North Wales) lit. “thick 
head.” 
Prencocu : The LESSER REDPOLL. (North Wales) lit. “red 
poll.” Bengoch is an equivalent form. 
Pencuin: The GREAT AUK. Found in Ray’s “Synopsis,” 
also in Willughby, Edwards, and other early writers; lit. 
‘“‘Pin-wing.”’ According to Nelson and Clarke ‘‘ Penwings”’ 
is an old Redcar (Yorkshire) name for the species. 
PENLOYN: The GREAT TITMOUSE and the COAL- 
TITMOUSE. (North Wales) lit. “ black head.” 
Prntoyn-y-cors. A Welshname for the MARSH-TITMOUSE ; 
lit. “‘ marsh coal head.” 
Penny-Birnp. An lrishname for the LITTLE GREBE. (Lough 
Morne ana Carrickfergus.) 
