What is "pelican"

Pelican \Pel"i*can\, n. [F. p['e]lican, L. pelicanus, pelecanus, Gr. ?, ?, ?, the woodpecker, and also a water bird of the pelican kind, fr. ? to hew with an ax, akin to Skr. para[,c]u.] [Written also pelecan.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) Any large webfooted bird of the genus Pelecanus, of which about a dozen species are known. They have an enormous bill, to the lower edge of which is attached a pouch in which captured fishes are temporarily stored.

   Note: The American white pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) and the brown species ( Pelecanus fuscus) are abundant on the Florida coast in winter, but breed about the lakes in the Rocky Mountains and British America.

2. (Old Chem.) A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation.

   Note: The principle is still employed in certain modern forms of distilling apparatus.

   Frigate pelican (Zo["o]l.), the frigate bird. See under Frigate.

   Pelican fish (Zo["o]l.), deep-sea fish ( Eurypharynx pelecanoides) of the order Lyomeri, remarkable for the enormous development of the jaws, which support a large gular pouch.

   Pelican flower (Bot.), the very large and curiously shaped blossom of a climbing plant ( Aristolochia grandiflora) of the West Indies; also, the plant itself.

   Pelican ibis (Zo["o]l.), a large Asiatic wood ibis ( Tantalus leucocephalus). The head and throat are destitute of feathers; the plumage is white, with the quills and the tail greenish black.

   Pelican in her piety (in heraldry and symbolical art), a representation of a pelican in the act of wounding her breast in order to nourish her young with her blood; -- a practice fabulously attributed to the bird, on account of which it was adopted as a symbol of the Redeemer, and of charity.

   Pelican's foot (Zo["o]l.), a marine gastropod shell of the genus Aporrhais, esp. Aporrhais pes-pelicani of Europe.

Old English pellicane, from Late Latin pelecanus, from Greek pelekan "pelican" (so used by Aristotle), apparently related to pelekas "woodpecker" and pelekys "ax," perhaps so called from the shape of the bird's bill. Spelling influenced in Middle English by Old French pelican. Used in Septuagint to translate Hebrew qaath. The fancy that it feeds its young on its own blood is an Egyptian tradition properly belonging to some other bird. Louisiana has been known as the Pelican state at least since 1859.

n. 1 Any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, having a long bill with a distendable pouch. 2 A native or resident of the American state of Louisiana. 3 (context chemistry obsolete English) A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation.

n. large long-winged warm-water seabird having a large bill with a distensible pouch for fish

A pelican is a bird of the family Pelecanidae.

Pelican may also refer to:

Pelican is a post-metal quartet from Des Plaines, Illinois. Established in 2000, the band stems from their native post-metal scene and is known for their atmospheric and almost entirely instrumental style. They have released five studio albums and four EPs and gained television exposure.

Pelican was a private man of war commissioned by a Liverpool merchant for offensive operations against French commerce following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War in February 1793.

Pelican (sometimes referred to as Untitled) is the debut EP by American post-metal band Pelican. It was originally released as a demo in 2001, before the band signed to Hydra Head Records, who re-released it in 2003.

"Mammoth" was extended and re-released as "Pink Mammoth", on their Pink Mammoth EP.

Pelicans are a genus of large water birds that makes up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterised by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped up contents before swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, the exceptions being the brown and Peruvian pelicans. The bills, pouches and bare facial skin of all species become brightly coloured before the breeding season. The eight living pelican species have a patchy global distribution, ranging latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone, though they are absent from interior South America as well as from polar regions and the open ocean.

Long thought to be related to frigatebirds, cormorants, tropicbirds, gannets and boobies, pelicans instead are now known to be most closely related to the shoebill and hamerkop, and are placed in the order Pelecaniformes. Ibises, spoonbills, herons and the desolate bitterns have been classified in the same order. Fossil evidence of pelicans dates back to at least 30 million years to the remains of a beak very similar to that of modern species recovered from Oligocene strata in France. They are thought to have evolved in the Old World and spread into the Americas; this is reflected in the relationships within the genus as the eight species divide into Old World and New World lineages.

Pelicans frequent inland and coastal waters where they feed principally on fish, catching them at or near the water surface. They are gregarious birds, travelling in flocks, hunting cooperatively and breeding colonially. Four white-plumaged species tend to nest on the ground, and four brown or grey-plumaged species nest mainly in trees. The relationship between pelicans and people has often been contentious. The birds have been persecuted because of their perceived competition with commercial and recreational fishing. Their populations have fallen through habitat destruction, disturbance and environmental pollution, and three species are of conservation concern. They also have a long history of cultural significance in mythology, and in Christian and heraldic iconography.

Pélican may refer to:

Pelican is the University of Western Australia's student magazine. It is financed by the UWA Guild, but maintains complete editorial independence. 2000 copies of each issue are published and distributed across metropolitan Perth, as well as to Notre Dame, Murdoch, Curtin, ECU, and Central TAFE. It is Australia's second oldest student paper, having begun publication in 1929.

Pelican is published 8 times a year, roughly coinciding with each month of semester at the University of Western Australia. In 2015, it launched its new website to achieve dual platform status. Easily distinguishable by its satire and professional design, Pelican has a readership of around 10,000 per edition and is aimed at Perth's tertiary students and young people aged between 17 and 27 frequenting the inner metropolitan area. Each edition is centred on a theme and includes regular reviews (books, music, television, film, and arts), opinion pieces, campus events listing, and current affairs analysis.

The Pelican is a pram dinghy, peculiar to Perth, Western Australia

It is similar to the ubiquitous Mirror being a gunter rigged pram designed for a crew of two, except that it is a little smaller and usually rigged only with main and spinnaker. Originally constructed in timber, many are now constructed in fibreglass. A variant of the Pelican class sailed at Lake Maquarie is also rigged with a jib.

The Dowager (or Imperial Pelican) Fabergé egg, is a jewelled Easter egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé in 1898. The egg was made for Nicholas II of Russia, who presented it to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna on Easter 1898.

The Pelican was a named train of the Southern Railway which ran from New York City to New Orleans and back until 1970.

"Pelican" is a song by English indie rock band The Maccabees. The track was released in the United Kingdom on 30 December 2011 as the lead single from the band's third studio album, Given to the Wild (2012) - where it debuted at number eighty-seven on the UK Singles Chart; peaking at number seventy-five a week later. The song was used for the soundtrack of 2012 racing video game Forza Horizon and the preview montage of Top Gear's nineteenth series on 27 January 2013.