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The Pelican


three gallons of water.

When the pelican goes to seek for its food, it flies up into the air for
some distance, then turns its head on one side, and with one eye looks
sharply down into the water until it sees a fish. Then it darts down
very swiftly, and is almost sure to seize it. Instead of eating the
fish at once, it usually stores it away in its pouch, and watches for
another. When its bag is filled, it flies away to some lonely place to
satisfy 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 to
believe that it pierces its breast, and feeds its young ones with its
own blood. Of course this is only a fable.

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