THE PELICAN IN HERALDRY 
both bone and beak. This very odd state of affairs 
is unparalleled in any other living bird. There are 
certainly half a dozen species of pelican, perhaps more ; 
they are white, black and white, or even as in Pelecanus 
fuscus, dark brown in colour, and occur in most parts 
of the world. The “ pelican in its piety” is a well 
known heraldic device ; it forms for instance the arms 
of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Under these cir- 
cumstances the pelican is represented as drawing blood 
from its own breast to feed its young. As a matter 
of fact the legend may rest upon the yellow to reddish 
tinge of the neck developed at the breeding season, 
which faintly suggests a stain of blood. This, coupled 
with the habit which all birds have of pecking at and 
fidgeting with their feathers, just as human beings 
bite their nails, may be responsible for that legend. 
There are no pelicans in England, though specimens 
escaped from captivity have been noted at times. But 
there once were pelicans ; for subfossil bones have been 
found in the fens of Cambridgeshire. 
THE DARTER 
Of darters there are four kinds, viz. Plotus anhinga 
of South America, P. nove-hollandie of Australia and 
adjacent islands, P. leviillanti of Africa, and finally P. 
melanogaster of India, China and Madagascar. The 
bird—any of these species that happens to be on view 
at the Gardens—will strike the visitor as a somewhat 
exaggerated cormorant. Its neck is longer, its head 
is smaller, but its plumage is distinctly cormorant- 
like, as is the general aspect and behaviour of the 
bird. It would seem to have even a more than cor- 
morant-like appetite, for a specimen that died in 
the Gardens some few years since was killed by swallow- 
ing in rapid succession a dozen small fishes. It is note- — 
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