384 
THE PELICAN. 
than the Pelican, and most of them founded upon some 
peculiarity, exaggerated by the ignorant. Thus, the old 
tradition of its drawing blood from its breast to feed its young 
ones, or as some ancient authors gravely asserted, to bring 
them to life again, after serpents had squirted venom into 
the nest and destroyed them, # originated in the bird’s habit 
of pressing its beak to its breast, in order more easily to dis- 
The Pelican. 
gorge the food it had prepared for them. They have, again, 
by others, been considered as purveyors of water to the 
camels, who instinctively seek in the desert for nests of these 
birds, which form reservoirs of water, conveyed thither in 
their pouches, to quench the thirst of their young. True it 
is, that the pouch of the Pelican is capable of carrying about 
two gallons, hut it is for the conveyance of fish rather than 
water, that it is serviceable to the bird; and were it ten 
Eusebius on Psalm cii. 
