_The Pelican as a Symbol of our Saviour_ (Vol. v., pp. 59.
165.).--Shakspeare, in _Hamlet_, alludes to the popular notion
respecting this bird:
"To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms,
And like the _kind, life-rendering pelican_,
Repast them with my blood."
The best representation I have ever seen of the pelican feeding her
young occurs in the works of a Roman printer, in the early part of the
eighteenth century, Rocco Bernabo, who has taken for his device a
pelican feeding her five young ones, a crown of thorns encircling them.
The pelican has a long bag or pouch, reaching the entire length of the
bill to the neck. In feeding its young, the bird squeezes the food
deposited in the bag into their mouths, by strongly compressing it upon
its breast with the bill. (See Calmet and Shaw.) Hence the popular idea.