PELICAN. (PELICANUS ONOCROTALUS.) THE false notion of this celebrated bird's peculiar tenderness for her young, in feeding them with her own blood, has afforded poets an obvious allusion to parental affection: To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms, And, like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood. SHAKSPEARE. Hamlet, act iv. sc. 5. That blood already, like the pelican, Hast thou lapp'd up, and drunkenly caroused. K. Richard II., act ii. sc. 1. Should discarded fathers Have this little mercy on their flesh? "Twas this flesh begot these pelican daughters. K. Lear, act iii. sc. 1. The Pelican is very common in Africa, is found also in America, and in the southern parts of Australia. It is furnished with a neck-pouch capable of containing twenty pints or more of water, which caused it to be called by the Egyp tians the river camel; and it swallows into this sac, in a single fishing, as much fish as would serve for the repast of six men. After fishing, when their pouch is full, these birds retire to the points of rocks, where they digest in repose, and remain in a state of drowsiness till night. This pouch, which may be considered as an external crop, has not the digestive heat of that of other birds, and the fish in it, therefore, remain fresh. To disgorge it to their young, they have occasion only to press the pouch on their breast; and, in all probability, this simple operation has given rise to the tale, that the Pelican opens its bosom to feed its young with its own proper substance.* It is observable too, that the colour of the pouch is red or yellowish; and, from seeing the bird empty it, a careless person, ignorant of the matter, might thus be easily mistaken. † * Cuvier, vol. viii. p. 649–650. Latham's Synopsis, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 579. REDBREAST. (MOTACILLA RUBICUNDA.) GAY's allusion in his sixth Pastoral to the tradition respecting the Redbreast, in the ballad of "The Children in the Wood," deviates both from the peculiar character of the bird, and from the ballad itself, by the use of plural terminations. Their gentle corps the robin redbreasts found, And strew'd with pious zeal the leaves around; Ah! gentle birds! if this verse live so long, Your names shall live for ever in my song. GAY. Pastoral 6. In all seasons the Redbreast preserves its solitary character: like the nightingale, the male Redbreast will suffer no other bird of its own species in the particular district which it has adopted. It pursues the intruder violently the moment it appears, and soon forces it to retire.* Its preference to the society of man (owing, * Cuvier, vol. vii. p. 11. perhaps, to a natural boldness in the bird), has given it a claim to our protection, and made it a general favourite. And not in England only; the Irish have a holier legend relating to it. They tell us, that "when our Saviour was suffering, the Robin hovered near the cross, to manifest his duty and affection to the Son of God; he kept close to him unto the end; and when the Lord's side was pierced some of the holy blood sprinkled on the Robin's breast, and the precious symbol was permitted to remain thereon, as a record of his fidelity."* It would not be easy to trace the origin of the Redbreast's supposed affection for mankind, and of the charitable office ascribed to it. Addison long ago noticed its resemblance to a circumstance related by Horace † : t: Me fabulosa Vulture in Appulo Ludo fatigatumque somno Fronde novâ puerum palumbes 'Texere. Lib. iii. od. iv. v. 9. * Lights and Shadows of Irish Life, by Mrs. Hall. vol. iii. p. 189. † Spectator, No. 85. |