The pelican is a wonderful bird which dwells in the region about the
river Nile. The written history[4] tells us that there are two
kinds,--those which dwell in the river and eat nothing but fish, and
those which dwell in the desert and eat only insects and worms. There is
a wonderful thing about the pelican, for never did mother-sheep love her
lamb as the pelican loves its young. When the young are born, the
parent bird devotes all his care and thought to nourishing them. But the
young birds are ungrateful, and when they have grown strong and
self-reliant they peck at their father's face, and he, enraged at their
wickedness, kills them all.
[Footnote 4: The reference here is probably to the 'Liber de Bestiis et
Aliis Rebus' of Hugo de St. Victor.]
On the third day the father comes to them, deeply moved with pity and
sorrow. With his beak he pierces his own side, until the blood flows
forth. With the blood he brings back life into the body of his young[5].
[Footnote 5: There are many allusions in literature to this story. Cf.
Shakespeare,--
"Like the kind life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood."--'Hamlet,' iv. 5.
"Those pelican daughters."--Lear, iii. 4. Cf. also the beautiful metaphor
of Alfred de Musset, in his 'Nuit de Mai.']