PIG IRON PILATE. 



559 



the toes ; tail with twelve feathers ; they walk well, 

 and fly with great swiftness, continuing on the wing 

 for a long time. They are found in every part of 

 the world, but the species are most numerous in 

 warm climates. 



Of all the varieties of the pigeon, the most re- 

 markable for its attachment to its native place is the 

 messenger or carrier. This is distinguished from the 

 others by a broad circle of naked white skin round 

 the eyes, and by its dark blue or blackish colour. 

 They obtained their name from the circumstance of 

 their being used to convey letters from one place to 

 another. The bird is brought, for this purpose, 

 from the place where it is intended to convey the 

 information ; a letter is tied under its wing, and it is 

 set at liberty ; and, from some inconceivable instinct, 

 it directs its flight, in a straight line, to the very spot 

 from whence it had been taken. See Carrier Pigeon. 



In America, there is a species of pigeons, called 

 the passenger or wild pigeon, which abounds most 

 prolifically. It is of a bluish-slate colour, with a 

 while belly ; the throat, breast, and sides vinace- 

 ous j tail black, of twelve feathers, five late- 

 ral whitish ; the female is paler, and her breast of a 

 cinereous brown. These birds visit the different 

 states, in innumerable quantities, but are more 

 abundant in the Western States. The time of their 

 appearance in Pennsylvania is early in the spring, 

 and again in autumn, when they pass in flocks con- 

 sisting of thousands. Wilson states that these flocks 

 are insignificant in comparison to those observed in 

 the Western States, which abound in the favourite 

 food of these birds. They breed there, and the same 

 author mentions that some of the breeding-places, as 

 they are termed, extend for thirty or forty miles in 

 extent. They are taken by means of clap-nets, 

 managed by a person concealed in a hut composed 

 of brush-wood. In this way, ten to forty or fifty 

 dozens are sometimes taken at a sweep. Their ap- 

 pearance is also a signal for a general turn out of 

 every one that can obtain a gun. For a detailed de- 

 scription, see Wilson's American Ornithology. 



PIG IRON. See Iron. 



PIG OF BALLAST ; a large mass of cast iron or 

 lead, used for ballast. 



PIG OF LEAD ; the eighth part of a fodder, 

 amounting to about 250 pounds weight. 



PIGMENTS ; materials used for imparting colour, 

 whether by dyeing, painting, or otherwise. (See 

 Dyeing.") The colouring substances used as paints 

 are partly artificial and partly natural productions. 

 They are derived principally from the mineral king- 

 dom ; and even when animal or vegetable substances 

 are used for colouring, they are always united with a 

 mineral substance (an earth or an oxide), because by 

 themselves they have no body, which they acquire 

 only by a mixture with a mineral. In painting, the 

 colours are ground, and applied by means of some 

 liquid, which dries up without changing them. For 

 this purpose different fluids are employed, and the 

 difference of the material used, with the method of 

 employing it, has given rise to the modes of painting 

 in water colours, oil colours, in fresco, in distemper, 

 &c. For oil painting mineral substances are more 

 suitable than lakes prepared with minerals, because 

 the latter become darker by being mixed with oil. 

 The mineral colours all consist of metallic oxides, or 

 salts, or of combinations of sulphur. The first are 

 less liable to change than the others. Among the 

 metallic oxides used as pigments are minium and 

 massicot, from lead ; the ochres, burnt sienna, umber, 

 from iron ; smalt, from cobalt. Among the salts, or 

 saline metallic combinations, are, white lend, Crem- 

 nitz white, from lead ; Prussian blue, from iron ; 

 verdigris, mineral green, Brunswick green, from 



] copper. Metallic combinations containing sulphur 

 are cinnabar (from quicksilver) and orpiment (from 

 arsenic). The lake colours have tin or alum for 

 their basis, and owe their tint to animal or vegetable 

 colouring substances. Among them are the red 

 lakes, prepared from cochineal, madder, and of in- 

 ferior quality, from Brazil wood ; the yellow from 

 fustic, weld, &c. ; the brown from several other 

 colouring barks ; finally, indigo, which, however, is 

 entirely vegetable. In staining porcelain and glass, 

 the metallic colours which are not driven off by heat, 

 and are not easily changeable, are used. Gold con- 

 taining tin gives a purple, nickel green, cobalt blue, 

 iron and manganese black, uranium yellow, chrome 

 green. On the subject of painters' pigments, their 

 preparation and application, see Bouvier's Manuel 

 des jeunes Artistes et Amateurs en Peinture (Paris, 

 1827) ; Tingry's Painter's and Varnisher's Guide. 



PIGMY. See Pygmy. 



PIKE (esox) ; a genus of fish, distinguished by 

 having only one dorsal fin near the tail, a long, 

 slender body, compressed laterally, and the lower 

 jaw projecting beyond the upper. They are ex- 

 tremely voracious and destructive, and their diges- 

 tive powers are as remarkable as their voracity : they 

 not only feed on fish, but also destroy young aquatic 

 birds, &c. They attain a great longevity, though 

 many of the accounts given of the age which indivi- 

 duals of this genus have reached, must be received 

 with great reservation. The common pike (E. lu- 

 cius), when in season, is beautifully marked with a 

 mixture of green and bright yellow spots. When 

 out of season, however, these colours become dull. 

 They grow to a large size, and are taken in great 

 numbers as an article of food. Their flesh is white, 

 firm and well tasted. They are caught either in 

 what are termed crown nets, or by the hook. When 

 the latter mode is used, the line must be very strong, 

 and the hook fastened with wire. The bait general- 

 ly used is a small fish. The Ohio pike (E. osseus) 

 also attains a very large size, and is exceedingly 

 abundant in the western rivers and lakes. 



PIKE. The pike, in the middle ages, with the 

 cross-bow, sword and battle-axe, formed the chief 

 weapons of the infantry. The pike was from sixteen 

 to eighteen feet long, consisting of a pole with an 

 iron point. See Lance.) Men armed with it were 

 called pike-men. After the invention of guns, they 

 gradually fell into disuse, and, in fact, can hardly be 

 considered very effective arms in modern warfare, 

 unless in the hands of excited insurgents, or of peo- 

 ple, fighting for their liberty, when every species of 

 arms is effective, even flails and staves, wielded by 

 monks. The Prussian Landsturm was armed with 

 pikes in 1813, to be used in case no better arms were 

 to be had. The Swiss first substituted the halberd 

 for the pike, towards the fifteenth century. For 

 some time, every company in the armies of Europe 

 consisted of at least two-thirds pike-men, and one- 

 third harquebussiers. Gustavus Adolphus, the great 

 improver of the modern art of war, about 1630, 

 omitted the p'ke-men in some regiments entirely. 

 The invention of the bayonet drove it still more out 

 of use. 



PILASTERS. See Architecture. 



PILATE, PONTIUS, the successor of Valerius 

 Gratus in the government of Judea, A. D. 27. He 

 is said to have been born in Spain. Pilate was pro- 

 curator, or praepositus, of Judea (Suetonius, P'espa- 

 sian, 4), and, as was sometimes the case in a small 

 province, or in a part of a large province, discharged 

 the office of a governor ; hence he had the power of 

 punishing capitally (Tacit. Annal., xii., 23), which 

 procurators did not usually possess, although Judea 

 was a part of the province of Syria. He endeavour- 



