 The self @-@ sacrificial aspect of the pelican was reinforced by the widely read medieval bestiaries . The device of " a pelican in her piety " or " a pelican vulning ( from Latin vulno , " to wound " ) herself " was used in heraldry . An older version of the myth is that the pelican used to kill its young then resurrect them with its blood , again analogous to the sacrifice of Jesus . Likewise , a folktale from India says that a pelican killed her young by rough treatment but was then so contrite that she resurrected them with her own blood . 
