THE PELICAN. 
291 
tw 7 rpo rtjg KoiXiag tottw ), wherein the molluscs are 
softened. They then throw them up and pick out the 
flesh from the opened valves. ^Elian 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 ./Elian, 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 
