leader of the company compelleth the company to fly aright, crying as
it were blaming with his voice. And if it hap that he wax hoarse, then
another crane cometh after him, and taketh the same office. And after
they fall to the earth crying, for to rest, and when they sit on the
ground, to keep and save them, they ordain watches that they may rest
the more surely, and the wakers stand upon one foot, and each of them
holdeth a little stone in the other foot, high from the earth, that
they may be waked by falling of the stone, if it hap that they sleep.

A griffin is accounted among flying things (Deut. xiiii.) and there
the Gloss saith, that the griffin is four-footed, and like to the
eagle in head and in wings, and is like to the lion in the other parts
of the body. And dwelleth in those hills that are called Hyperborean,
and are most enemies to horses and men, and grieveth them most, and
layeth in his nest a stone that hight Smaragdus against venomous
beasts of the mountain.

A pelican is a bird of Egypt, and dwelleth in deserts beside the river
Nile. All that the pelican eateth, he plungeth in water with his foot,
and when he hath so plunged it in water, he putteth it into his mouth
with his own foot, as it were with an hand. Only the pelican and the
popinjay among fowls use the foot instead of an hand.

The pelican loveth too much her children. For when the children be
haught, and begin to wax hoar, they smite the father and the mother in
the face, wherefore the mother smiteth them again and slayeth them.
And the third day, the mother smiteth herself in her side, that the
blood runneth out, and sheddeth that hot blood on the bodies of her
children. And by virtue of that blood, the birds that were before dead
quicken again.