PELICAN

PELICAN, one of the largest of water birds. Three species of the pelican (genus Pelecanus) are occasionally seen in Israel   in the nature preserve that was formerly part of the Ḥuleh swamps, as well as in fish ponds. The pelican may be the שַׂקְנַאִי (saknai) mentioned in the Talmud (Ḥul. 63a) as a bird that was eaten in some places but not in others since there were doubts as to its kashrut. Its Hebrew name is derived from the pouch (sak) under its lower bill jaw used for storing the fish it catches. The Septuagint identifies the pelican with the קָאָת (ka'at; Lev. 11:18; Isa. 34:11; et al.), which was apparently the view, too, of an amora (Ḥul. loc. cit.), who identified the ka'at with the kik (Ḥul. loc. cit with the reading of the Arukh) said to be found in the neighborhood of seas and to be very fatty (Shab. 21a). But the identification of ka'at with the pelican, a waterfowl, is improbable, since it is mentioned in the Bible as a bird that inhabits the desert and ruins, and is a species of owl . This identification has, however, passed into modern Hebrew. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lewysohn, Zool, 184f., 368; F.S. Bodenheimer, Animal and Man in Bible Lands (1960), 64; M. Dor, Leksikon Zo'ologi (1965), 343. (Jehuda Feliks)