pelican Summary and Overview

(Heb. kaath, sometimes translated "cormorant," as #Isa 34:11; Zep 2:14| though in the margin correctly rendered "pelican"), a voracious waterbird, found most abundantly in tropical regions. It is equal to the swan in size. (It has a flat bill fifteen inches long, and the female has under the bill a pouch capable of great distension. It is capacious enough to hold fish sufficient for the dinner of half a dozen men. The young are fed from this pouch, which is emptied of the food by pressing the pouch against the breast. The pelican's bill has a crimson tip, and the contrast of this red tip against the white breast probably gave rise to the tradition that the bird tore her own breast to feed her young with her blood. The flesh of the pelican was forbidden to the Jews. #Le 11:18| --ED.) The psalmist in comparing his pitiable condition to the pelican, #Ps 102:6| probably has reference to its general aspect as it sits in apparent melancholy mood, with its bill resting on its breast.

PELICAN (Heb. the vomiter), a voracious water-bird, unclean by the Levitical law. Lev 11:18, of singular construction and habits, resembling the goose, though nearly twice as large. Its bill is 15 inches long. The female has a large pouch or bag capable of containing 2 or 3 gallons of water, and food enough for six common men. Out of this pouch she feeds herself and her young, and from this habit and the red nail at the end of her bill came the notion that she fed her offspring on her own blood. The pelican was formerly more abundant than now in the Levant, but Dr. Thomson has seen it at Lake Huleh and the Sea of Galilee. Having gorged itself with fish, this bird flies miles into the wilderness, where it sits in some lonely place "for hours, or even days, with its bill resting on its breast, a picture of melancholy." Ps 102:6. The margin correctly reads "pelican" for "cormorant" in Isa 34:11; Zeph 2:14. (Sec cut. p. 667.)

ka'ath. Two species exist in the Levant, Pelican onocratalus and Pelican crispus. Often found on the upper Jordan. The Hebrew name is an imitation of its harsh donkey-like braying note, as onocratalus expresses; or from a root "to throw up," from its bringing fish back to its mouth from its large pouch beneath the beak. The origin of the fable of its feeding its young with its blood sprang from its pressing its under mandible against its breast to help it to disgorge its pouch's contents for its young, and from the red nail on the end of the upper mandible coming in contact with the breast. "Pelican of the wilderness" alludes to its seeking uninhabited places as breeding places. Being a water bird, it could not live in a place destitute of water. But midbar means simply "an open unenclosed land", as distinguished from a settled agricultural region. Its posture with bill resting on its breast suggests the idea of melancholy solitude (Psalm 102:6; Isaiah 34:11, where ka'ath is "pelican" not "cormorant".) After filling its pouch with fish and mollusks, it retires miles away inland to consume the contents of its pouch.