What is "pelican fish"

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.