The Pelican

The pelican is a large bird, and a curious one. It sometimes measuresnearly six feet from the top of the head to the end of the tail; and you

know that this is the height of a tall man. It may be called a water-bird, because it lives on the sea-coast, or on the borders of lakes andrivers and lives upon fish only. It has a very long bill, and underthis is a curious bag or pouch to hold the fish which it takes. Whenthere is nothing in it, you would hardly notice it, because it is drawnup close under the bill; but it is so large that it will hold two orthree gallons of water.

When the pelican goes to seek for its food, it flies up into the airfor some distance, then turns its head on one side, and with one eyelooks

sharply down into the water until it sees a fish. Then it darts downvery swiftly, and is almost sure to seize it. Instead of eating thefish at once, it usually stores it away in its pouch, and watches foranother. When its bag is filled, it flies away to some lonely place tosatisfy its hunger, or to feed its young. In order to get out the fish,it presses its bill against its breast; and this has led some people tobelieve that it pierces its breast, and feeds its young ones with itsown blood. Of course this is only a fable.

The pelican likes to live in lonely places, such as a rocky island inthe midst of the ocean, where nobody will come near to disturb it: it isfor this reason that David says in the 102d Psalm, "I am like a pelicanin the wilderness," or solitary place. I suppose he wrote this Psalmwhen he was very sorrowful; perhaps when Saul was pursuing him, andtrying to take his life.

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