Pelican derives from the Greek word pelekys,
meaning “ax” and applied to birds that cut wood with their bills or beaks.
The pelican, of course, doesn’t cut wood like a woodpecker, but St. Jerome
erroneously applied the Greek name to the bird in his long-lived
translation of the Bible and the name stuck. The male pelican, medieval
legend claimed, often killed its young when they rebelled against him, but
the mother pelican sat on the dead birds for three days pouring her blood
over them until they revived, fed on the blood and became strong again.
The legend arose from the fact that the female pelican macerates fish in
the large bag under its bill and transfers this food to the mouths of its
young.
The brown pelican’s pouch can hold over two gallons of water. A white
pelican weighs more than its parents at two months of age, tipping the
scales at over six pounds more than it will weigh as an adult. This is
because the parents desert the fledgling at two months, and it must live
off its excess fat until it can catch its own food.