PAU 



INDEX 



PEN 



41 



them, have tlieir stated times of return ; their king distinguished 

 from the rest by the lustre of his plumage, and the respect and 

 veneration paid to him ; killing the king, the best chance of get- 

 ting the flock ; the chief mark to know the king is by the ends of 

 the feathers in the tail, having eyes like those of the peacock ; how 

 this bird breeds, or what the number of its young, remains for dis- 

 covery ; for beauty it exceeds all others of the pie-kind ; the na- 

 tives of the isle of Aro make a trade of killing and selling them to 

 the Europeans, 522 to 525. 



Parakeet. See Parrot. 



Parana, a river in South America, from which the Plata runs 

 eight hundred leagues from its source to its mouth, H3. 



Parasina, name given by the Italians to a fishing line, not less 

 than twenty miles long ; baited with above ten or twelve thousand 

 hooks, and sunk to the bottom along the coast in the Mediterranean, 

 fur that fishing called the pieliigo. 034. 



Parasitt: plants, not able to support themselves, grow and fix 

 upon some neighbouring tree, 12'^. 



Parrot, the middle or second size of the kind described; llie ease 

 with which this bird is taught to speak, and the number of words it 

 is capable of repeating, are surprising ; a grave writer allirms, 

 that one of these was taught to repeat a whole sonnet from Pi 

 the author has seen one taught to pronounce the ninth command- 

 ment articulately ; account of a parrot belonging to Henry VII.; 

 Linnaeus makes its varieties amount to forty-seven ; Brisson ex- 

 tends his catalogue to ninety-five ; and the author thinks them 

 numberless ; peculiarities observed in their conformation ; common 

 enough in Europe ; will not, however, breed here ; the rook is not 

 better known with us than the parrot in almost every part of the 

 East and West Indies ; instances of sagacity and docility, particu- 

 larly of the great parrot called aieurous ; their nests and the num- 

 ber of eggs ; usual method of taking the young ; always speak best 

 when not accustomed to harsh wild notes ; in France very expert, 

 but nothing to those of Brazil, which, Clausius says, are most sen- 

 sible and cunning; natives of Brazil shoot them with heavy ar- 

 rows, headed with cotton, which knock down the bird \vi1hout kill- 

 ing it ; those of the parakeet tribe are delicate eating : of this kind 

 in Brazil, Labat assures these are the most beautilul in plumage, 

 nnd the most talkative possible : are restless, tmd ever on the wing ; 

 their habits ; tlieir outcry when their companions fall ; are very 

 destructive on the coast of Guinea, and are considered by the 

 negroes as their greatest tormentors; more than a hundred dif- 

 ferent kinds counted on the coast of Africa ; the white sort called 

 lories ; countries where found ; one, north of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, takes its name from the multitude of parrots in its woods ; 

 a hundred kinds now known, not one of which naturally breeds in 

 countries that acknowledged the Roman power ; the green para- 

 keet, with a red neck, was the first of this kind brought into En- 

 rope, and the only one known to Ihe ancients from Alexander the 

 Great to Nero; disorders peculiar to the parrot kind; one well 

 kept will live five or six and twenty years, 525 to 52! >. 



Partridffs, in England, a favourite delicacy at the tables of the 

 rich, whose desire of keeping them to themselves has been gratified 

 with laws fur their preservation, no way harmonizing with the 

 general spirit of English legislation, and -. M-C two kinds, 



the gray and the red ; the gray is most prolific, and always keeps 

 on the ground; the red less common, and perches upon trees; the 

 partridge is found in every country, and climate; in On 

 where Ft is brown in summer, becomes white in winter ; those of 

 Baraconda are larger legged, swifter of foot, and reside in the 

 highest rocks ; partridges of all sorts agree in one character, being 

 iimnoderately addicted to venery, often to an unnatural <!i - : n -,.< ; the 

 male pursues the hen to her nest, and breaks her eggs ratiior than 

 be disappointed; the young having kept in ii.icks during winter, 

 break society in spring, when they begin to pair, ami terrible com- 

 bats ensue; their manners otherwise resemble these of pmil'ry. 

 but their cunning and instincts are superior; means l!i 

 uses to draw away any formidable animal that aptinwiits h 

 the covies are from ten to fifteen, and, unmolested, they live from 

 fifteen to seventeen years ; method of taking them in a net. with a 

 setting-dog, the most pleasant, and most secure ; they are never so 

 tame as our domestic poultry. 507. 5(>r-. 



Passions, most of the furious sort characterized from the eleva- 

 tion and depression of the eye-brows, 142 ; freedom from passions 

 not only adds to the happiness of the mind, hut preserves the beau- 

 ty of the face, 17-1. 



Pastures, those of Great Britain excellently adapted to the cow 

 kind, 233. 



Patas, by some called the red African monkey; its descrip- 

 tion, 411. 



Paul f St.) in Lower Brittany. Sec Sand. 

 NO. 79 &. 80. 



Pnuneli, name of the first stomach of ruminating animals, 231. 



1'ir-ini, name of the eighth variety of gazelles, by Mr. Buffon,251. 



I't acock, a saying among the ancients, As beautiful as is the pea- 

 cock among birds, so is the tiger among quadrupeds, 2!>7; varieties 

 of this bird; some white, others crested; that of Thibet the most 

 beautiful of the feathered creation ; our first were brought from 

 the East Indies, and they are still found in flocks in a wild state in 

 the inlands of Java and Ceylon ; the common people of Italy say it 

 has the plumage of an angel, the voice of a devil, and the guts of a 

 thief; in the days of Solomon we find his navies imported from the 

 I'.ast, apes ami peaeocks ; ^Klian relates they were brought into 

 Greece from some barbarous country, and that a male and female 

 were valued at thirty pounds of our money ; it is said also, that 

 when Alexander was in India, he saw them flying wild on the banks 

 of the river Hyarotis, and was so struck with their beauty, that ho 

 laid a fine and punishment on all who should kill or disturb them; 

 the Greeks were so much taken with the beauty of this bird, when 

 first brought among them, that it was shown tor money, and many 

 came to Athens from Laec.drrmon and Thessaly to see it; once 

 esteemed a delicacy at the tallies of Ihe rich and great ; Aufidius 

 Hurco stands charged by Pliny with being the first who fatted up 

 peacocks for the feasts of the luxurious ; Hortensius, the orator, was 

 'lie I'nst who served them up at. an entertainment at Rome, and 

 jj they are talked of as the first of viands ; in the times of Francis I. 

 it was a custom to serve up peacocks to the tables of the great, not 

 to be eaten, but seen ; in what manner they served them ; its flesh 

 is said to keep longer unputrefied than any other ; has a predilec- 

 tion for barley ; but as a proud and fickle bird, there is scarce any 

 food it will at all times like ; it strips the tops of houses of tiles or 

 thatch, lays waste the labours of the gardener, roots up the choicest 

 seeds, and nips favourite flowers in the bud ; is still more salacious 

 than the eock ; requires five females at least to attend him, and, 

 the number not sufficient, will run upon and tread the sitting hen ; 

 the pea-hen, as much as possible hides her nest from him, that he 

 may not disturb her sitting ; she seldom lays above five or six eggs 

 in this climate ; Aristotle describes her laying twelve ; in forests 

 where they breed naturally they are very numerous; this bird 

 lives about twenty years, and not till the third year lias that beau- 

 tiful variegated plumage of its tail; in the kingdom of Cambaya, 

 says Taverner, near the city of Baroch, whole flocks of them are in 

 the fields; description of their habits; decoy made use of to catch 

 them there, 497, 4!i8. 



Pcuriirk (sea) a name given to the Balearic crane, 5.".-'. 



/'ml; nf Tun riffr, its volcano seldom free from eruptions, 29. 



Peak, mountain in the Molucca islands, swallowed by an earth- 

 quake, 47. 



Pearl, an animal substance concreted and taking a tincture from 

 the air ; found in all bivalved shells, the inside of which resembles 

 that substance called mother-of-pearl; jmiri-vystcr, from which 

 the mother-of-pearl is token ; several pearl fisheries ; the chief of 

 them in the Persian Gulf, and the most valuable pearls brought 

 from thence ; the wretched people destined to fish for pearls, usually 

 die consumptive; in what manner they fish for them, 691,692. 



Pearls, in stags, are parts rising from the crust of the beam, 

 262. 



Pecrary or tajara, an animal, a native of America ; found there 

 in sueh numbers, that they are seen in herds of several hundreds 

 ("u'-tluT ; at fii-st view resembling a small hog; its description; 

 has upon the back a lump like the navel in other animals ; goes in 

 herds of two or three hundred, and unites, like hogs, in each other's 

 defence ; delights not in marshes or mud like our hogs ; an unceas- 

 ing enemy to the lizard, the toad, and the serpent kinds ; also feeds 

 upon toads and serpents. '}:! to 'J-4. 



n ' . the Arabians preserve that of their best horses, 216. 



/':.".& river c:;llad the Indian iNile, because of its overflow- 

 ing, <>4. 



Ptlagii, the Latin name for those shells fished up from the 

 deep, 0>U. 



t'llirnn, a ruminating bird. 9:12 ; a native of Africa and America; 

 its df.cription ; the description of this bird from Father Labat; 

 their flesh rancid, and tastes worse than it smells; use made by 

 the Americans of their pouches ; is U'>t entirely incapable; of in- 

 struction in a domestic stat" ; iiuUuices of it ; Gesner tells us that 

 the Emperor Maximilian had a tame one which lived eighty years ; 

 Aldrovandus mentions one believed to be fifty years old, 576 to 578. 



Penguins, a heavy water-fowl ; the wings of this tribe unfit 

 for flight ; and their legs still more awkwardly adapted for walk- 

 ing : they dive to the bottom ; or swim between two waters ; they 

 never visit land but when coming to breed ; their colour ; are co- 

 vered more warmly with feathers than other birds ; description of 

 the Mao-ellanic penguin ; they unite in them the qualities of men, 



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