PHOENIX PIC^E 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 (Euterpe, 

 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 1 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 (i.e. A.D. 34), 

 as stated by Tacitus (Ann. 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 Cyclopaedia (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 

 Phcenix-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. 2 



PIC^E, the second Order of Birds in the Linna3an system, 

 composed of the genera Psittacus (PARROT), Eamphastos (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), Yunx 3 (WRYNECK), Picus (WOODPECKER), 



1 It 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 Phcenice 

 (Lipsise : 1665) ; Kirschmaier and Oheimb, De Phosnice (Wittembergse : 1660) ; 

 Kirschmaier, Disputt. zooll. de Basilisco, Unicornu, Phcenice &c. (Wittemb. 

 1661 ; Jenae : 1760) ; Lagerloff, Phcenicis (Jt.v0o\oyla (Upsalise : 1689) ; Mennander, 

 Dissert, de Phcenice Ave (Aboae : 1748) ; Pfeiffer, Dissert, de Phcenice Ave (Regio- 

 monti : 1673) ; Seuberlich, De Phcenice (Regiom. 1696) ; Wendler, Dissert, de 

 Phcenice (Gerse : 1687) ; but the above-named article in the Penny Cyclopaedia, 

 by the late Dr. Greenhill, is especially good. 



3 In the preceding edition of the Systcma Naturae more correctly spelt Jynst, 

 which is the continental way of printing our lynx. 



