Do You Believe in Magic?

Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)

A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can. 

He can hold in his beak
enough food for a week.
But I'll be darned if I know 

how the hellican!

              - Dixon Lanier Merritt

Fossil records indicate that pelicans have changed little over the last 30 million years. They are found on all continents except Antarctica and are often persecuted by fishermen who perceive them as competition, although scientific evidence proves otherwise.

Quite iconic, the pelican has long been a symbol in mythology, magic, & religion; the Egyptians considered it a goddess as did early Peruvian cultures. Pelicans frequently peck at their breasts whilst preening, and in Medieval Europe it was thought that these avian mothers were so caring of their young that they wounded their breasts to nurse them with their own blood.  This myth of self-sacrifice launched the pelican into Christian symbolism. Elizabeth I of England wore the symbol on her chest, and the pelican feeding her young appeared in the first edition of the King James Bible in 1611.