Two: I assess the parallel history of the saintlike pelican – Christ to the cormorant’s Satan – describing the close interweaving of the symbolic histories of these two birds over time. In the process, I address the tradition of the ‘vulning’ pelican, focusing on the destructive pairing of cormorant and pelican in Richard II and then turning to The Merchant of Venice, in which the mutual loathing of Shylock and Antonio is expressed through their respective implied identities as cormorant and pelican, and I discuss the historic antisemitic association of cormorants. I then reflect on the crucified cormorant in modern writing and culture, briefly discussing also the redemption of the cormorant in contemporary British young adult fiction. I conclude with an account of a recent poem by African-American poet Tiana Clark in which, reversing centuries of racist association with the bird, she finds her own post-Christian identity in the cormorant.