THE PELICAN. 29 1 



t<£ Trpb tijq KoiXiag ti'ittw), wherein the molluscs are 

 softened. They then throw them up and pick out the 

 flesh from the opened valves. iElian merely repeats this 

 story, only he says the shell-fish are received into the 

 stomach. In another place he says there is mutual 

 hostility between the pelican and the quail. The pelican 

 was known to the Romans under the name of onocrotalus. 

 Pliny says this bird is like the swan, except that under 

 the throat there is a sort of second crop of astonishing- 

 capacity. There is, of course, no doubt that the pelican 

 is here intended. Cicero says there is a bird called 

 platalea which pursues other birds and causes them to 

 drop the fish they have caught, which it devours itself. 

 He then gives the same story as y£lian, viz., that this bird 

 softens shell-fish in its stomach, &c. The first part of 

 this account is true of the parasitic gulls (Lestris). It is 

 uncertain what bird Cicero alludes to by the name 

 platalea. Pliny gives the same story as Cicero, and calls 

 the bird platea. The fable, then, is no classical one. 

 Whence did it originate ? Does any pictorial representa- 

 tion occur on the Egyptian monuments, as Mr. Bartlett 

 has been informed ? I am inclined to think — but I speak 

 under correction — that such a representation does not 

 occur. Horapollo (i. 54) tells us that when the ancient 

 Egyptians want to represent a fool they depict the 

 pelican, because this bird, instead of laying its eggs on 

 lofty and secure places, merely scratches up the ground 



