Chaucer, Assembly of Foules (1358).
Pelican. A pelican feeds its young brood with its blood.
The pelican turneth her beak against her brest, and therewith pierceth it till the blood gush, wherewith she nourisheth her young.--Eugenius Philalethes, Brief Natural History, 93.
Then sayd the Pellycane,
“When my byrdts be slayne,
With my bloude I them reuyue [revive],”
Scrypture doth record,
The same dyd our Lord,
And rose from deth to lyue [life].
Skelton, Armoury of Byrdts (died 1529).