Pike oon ey a ee ee 
PH NIX—PICH 717; 
PHCENIX, said by Hesiod (apud Plin. H. N. vii. 49) to be a 
bird that lived nine times as long as a Crow ; and, in a passage too 
often quoted to need repetition, described by Herodotus (Luterpe, 
73) from a picture which he saw in Egypt. To doubt the existence 
of this bird was for ages evidence of depravity, for it had been so 
entwined by Classical, Rabbinical, Christian and Mahomedan legend, 
and so used to illustrate the sublimest doctrine, that we may almost 
wonder at belief in it not being enjoined by some confession of 
faith or imported into some religious formulary. Moreover though 
no Greek, Latin or Arabic author! could vouch for having himself 
seen a specimen, and its last appearance on earth was said to be in 
the consulship of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius (7.¢. A.D. 34), 
as stated by Tacitus (4nn. vi. 28), yet according to Camden 
(Britannia, p. 783, ed. 1607) one of its feathers was sent in 1599 
by Pope Clement VIII. to the celebrated Hugh O’Neal, Earl of 
Tyrone, then leader of the Irish opposition ; and the writer of the 
article “Phoenix” in the Penny Cyclopedia (xviii. pp. 101-103) 
declared that even in June 1840, a very learned scholar at Oxford, 
subsequently stated (Notes and Queries, ser. 7, vi. pp. 481, 482) to 
have been Mr. J. B. Morris of Exeter College, still seriously 
believed in the existence of the bird. It was long ago suggested 
by Sir Thomas Browne (Vulgar Errors, book III. chap. xii.) that the 
Pheenix-story had its origin in a BIRD-OF-PARADISE (p. 38, note 
3), and unless the whole was a lie from the beginning this still 
seems possible ; but the late Mr. Gurney used to consider that a 
“ Bateleur” Eagle (Helotarsus ecaudatus) was the cause of it.” 
PICK, the second Order of Birds in the Linnzan system, 
composed of the genera Psitiacus (PARROT), Ramphastos (TOUCAN), 
Buceros (HORNBILL), Buphaga (OXPECKER), Crotophaga (ANI), Corvus 
(Crow), Coracias (ROLLER), Oriolus (ORIOLE), Gracula (GRACKLE), 
Paradisea (BIRD-OF-PARADISE), Trogon (TROGON), Bucco (BARBET), 
Cuculus (Cuckow), Yuna? (WRyYNECK), Picus (WOODPECKER), 
1 Tt was defined by Arabic writers to be a creature ‘‘ whose name was known, 
its body unknown.” 
2 The literature of the subject is not without interest and very large, though 
(possibly through the lack of specimens) it has fallen off of late years. Among 
separate works the following may be named :—Dauderstadius, Disput. de Phanice 
(Lipsie : 1665); Kirschmaier and Oheimb, De Phenice (Wittemberge : 1660) ; 
Kirschmaier, Disputt. zooll. de Basilisco, Unicornu, Phenice &c. (Wittemb. 
1661 ; Jene: 1760) ; Lagerlof, Phenicis wvOodoyia (Upsalize : 1689); Mennander, 
Dissert. de Phenice Ave (Abow: 1748); Pfeiffer, Dissert. de Phanice Ave (Regio- 
monti: 1673); Seuberlich, De Phaenice (Regiom. 1696); Wendler, Dissert. de 
Phenice (Gere: 1687); but the above-named article in the Penny Cyclopxdia, 
by the late Dr. Greenhill, is especially good. 
3 In the preceding edition of the Systema Naturz more cornectly spelt Jynz, 
which is the continental way of printing our Jyn. 
