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THE PELICAN. 
and there lays. The people surround the place with dried 
cow’s dung, and set fire to it. The pelican sees the smoke, 
and endeavours to extinguish the fire with her wings, the 
motion of which only fans the flame. Thus she burns 
her wings, and falls an easy prey to the fowlers. Some 
Egyptian priests, considering this behaviour evinces great 
love of its young, do not eat the bird; others, again, 
thinking it is a mark of folly, eat it. The Egyptians, 
however, did believe in a bird feeding its young with its 
blood, and this bird is none other than a vulture. Hora- 
pollo says (i. n) that a vulture symbolises a compassion¬ 
ate person (eXe^juova), because during the 120 days of its 
nurture of its offspring, if food cannot be had, ‘ it opens 
its own thigh and permits the young to partake of the 
blood, so that they may not perish from want.’ This is 
alluded to in the following lines by Georgius Pisidas :— 
Tov finpov etcTe/novreg, y]parwpivoig 
rVAafcroc* bXKoig ^oJTrvpovai ra j 3 pi(pr]. 
Amongst classical authors, the love of the vulture for its 
young was proverbial. But when do we first hear of the 
fable of the pelican feeding its young with its blood ? In 
Patristic annotations on the Scriptures. I believe this is 
the answer. The ecclesiastical fathers transferred the 
Egyptian story from the vulture to the pelican, but 
magnified the already sufficiently marvellous fable a 
hundredfold, for the blood of the parent was not only 
