Jerdon, speaking of the Indian Bustard (Eupodotis Edwardsii), says, “they will often swallow pebbles or any glittering object that attracts them. I took several portions of a brass ornament, the size of a No. 16 bullet, out of the stomach of one bustard.”[167]
In reply to Hotspur’s inquiries for “The madcap Prince of Wales,” and his comrades, at the rebel camp near Shrewsbury, he is told that they are
“All furnish’d, all in arms;
All plum’d like estridges that with the wind
Bated; like eagles having lately bath’d.”[168]
Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
THE PELICAN.
Looking to the antiquity of the fable of the Pelican’s feeding her young with her own blood, it is not surprising that Shakespeare has alluded to it when mentioning this bird. Laertes says:—
“To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms;
And, like the kind life-rendering pelican,