His bill can hold more than his belly can

One of my favourite book covers as I grew up was that of 'Stylistics' by GW Turner, published by Pelican Books, the more academic imprint of Penguin. It used the encounter between a linguist and a pelican to illustrate the various stylistic approaches that might be adopted to describe it. In differing fonts: 'Linguist sees pelican'; ' "I have seen the pelican" said one linguist.'; 'LINGUIST SIGHTED PELICAN STOP'; 'It was the pelican that the linguist observed.'; and lastly, in 'comic' script: 'As the linguist approached: "Aaargh! A pelican!" '

I looked for a scan of the cover but could only find a tiny example, from which the above is transcribed. I expect I read at least some of the book too, at the time. You can see more of Pelican's excellent book covers here, or here.

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St James's Park, lunchtime, near the pond, the western end. A man in a suit, an escapee from a nearby office, sits on a bench reading. He is joined by a pelican, the bird waddles across the path and hops up onto the seat, occupying a spot close to the opposite arm. The pelican is a silent neighbour and it does not fidget. The man returns to his book, the presence of the pelican, being only relatively unusually close, does not trouble him. There is a period of peaceful coexistence that is regrettably brief.

Others see the pelican. Their bear down on it with their attention and cameras. Most concentrate on the pelican, they normally congregate on a distant rock and it's an accessible novelty in its chosen position. But some, particularly those with cameras, apprehend the aggregate scene of pelican and man reading his book in passive harmony and each paying the other no attention. It is a Picture and they Take It, repeatedly and from several angles. More people, more cameras are arriving.

I had to leave at this point and alerted by the adjacent movement the pelican turned its bill towards me as if in enquiry. I wanted to say: "Excuse me, it's not you, it's these others, I feel awkward, self-conscious. Perhaps you feel the same, but are more resilient. For me it's too much, you mustn't be offended."

But even with a basic grounding in linguistics there was no real prospect of making myself understood to the pelican.