a wonderful bird is a pelican

 

digital illustration by Art Winstanley, ©2010 Arthur A. Winstanley

"A wonderful bird is a pelican, 

His bill will hold more than his belican. 

He can hold in his beak 

Enough food for a week; 

But I’m damned if I know how the helican."

Even though that poem is attributed to Ogden Nash, I've heard it said that the "pelican poem" was written around 1910 by Dixon Lanire Merritt, editor of Nashville’s newspaper,
"The Tennessean".

 

Now, I don't know what it is about me and pelicans. But for as long as I can remember, I've been captivated by them. Which I sometimes think is pretty weird for a kid who grew up in Queens, N.Y. and Jersey City, N.J. where there just aren't any pelicans to be found.

The fact is I never saw one up close enough to touch until I moved here to Key West as an adult.
Yeah, they'll let you get close up and personal. You've just gotta move slowly, think mellow thoughts and have a bit of fish in your hand.
(slow moving good vibes aside, I'm pretty sure it's the fish that's the deal maker)

Anyway, I can and have watched the little buggers (well really, they're not so little) for an hour at a time just flying and fishing or sitting on the rail at the pier.
They really are cool birds.

Have you ever seen how they hunt and catch fish?
Check this out. . .
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB2UZpmYPuU&feature=related

HEAD-FIRST! CRASH!! BASH!!!
You've gotta wonder; how can he do that, several times twice a day, every day of his avian life and not get a headache?

". . .I’m damned if I know how the helican."

keys Q&A

Q: What does a stone pelican poop?
A: Marbles.

Q: Where can I reach you?
A: Call me at the branch office.

magis psittacus caput capitis

I had an uncle who spoke Latin. (God only knows why - I mean, unless you play Bingo on Wednesdays with the Pope, who can you talk to?)

In all fairness, I think both my mother's younger brothers learned Latin but Gene, we'd be doing this or that or driving here or there and he'd bust into 20 minute diatribes. . .
". . .Amicitia Romanorum paganus commodo mihi vestri intentio. Ut est optimus vultus mulier ego fuisti umquam vultus procul, inviso illud magnus pectus!"

The only Latin I ever learned was the stuff you had to know to be an alterboy. (a long time ago, on a planet far far away)

Years and years later, long after I'd given up faithful following of Catholic-ness, it was Friday Poker night at my brother Mike's place. Of the 6 guys at the table, it turned out that 4 of us had been alterboys and at some point in the early morning hours we all started regurgitating the Latin Mass in unison. I thought for sure I'd forgotten it all but out of my mouth it came and, ever since, I've credited Jack Daniels as the mnemonic device.

The other two guys, a Baptist and a Jewish dude, waited for the rest of us to finally shut-up and got equal time with a rousing chorus of Amazing Grace and reciting Yehuda ha-Levi verses from the Book of the Khazar. (It was a strange night)

These days, the only way the arcane language of the Caesars comes around in my world is through my casual interest in birding. Mine isn't a long life list but if a steaming meteor of once and future roadkill falls from the sky and finds its way to my shoulder, I want to know who's responsible.

About 250 years ago a Swedish guy named Carl von Linné classified life forms of all sorts, including birds, with Latin names. (the knucklehead even Latinized his own name)

According to "Carolus Linnaeus" . . .
Pelicans on the White St. Pier are "Pelecanus fuscus", the Laughing Gulls on Smathers Beach are "Larus atricilla" and the white Egret I saw walking on Frances St. yesterday is "Casmerodius albus". Those Turkey Vultures over Mt. Trashmore are "Cathartes aura", Florida Cormorants are "Phalacrocorax floridanus" and Parrots?

Well, parrots are "Psittaciformes".

So, taking the artistic license I'm famous for, it follows that parrot heads (like these four beauties) are "psittacus caput capitis" but since I recently wrote a post titled "parrotheads" and didn't want to repeat myself, I've taken the long way around the block to title these guys "magis psittacus caput capitis". (more parrotheads)

My uncle would have known that.