PH(E 



PHO 



shore, each male surrounded by his fe- 

 males, from eight to fifty, and his off- 

 spring 1 , amounting frequently to more 

 than than that number. Each family is 

 preserved separate from every other. 

 The ursine seals are extremely fat and 

 indolent, and remain with little exercise, 

 or even motion, for months together up- 

 on the shore. But if jealousy, to which 

 they are ever alive, once strongly operate, 

 they are roused to animation by all the 

 fierceness of resentment and vengeance, 

 and conflicts arising from this cause be- 

 tween individuals, soon spread through 

 families, till at length the whole shore 

 becomes a scene of the most horrid hos- 

 tility and havoc. When the conflict is 

 finished, the survivors plunge into the 

 water, to wash oft' the blood, and recover 

 from their exhaustion. Those which are 

 old, and have lost the solace of connubial 

 life, are reported to be extremely cap- 

 tious, fierce, and malignant, and to live 

 apart from all others, and so tenaciously 

 to be attached to the station, which pre- 

 occupancy may be supposed to give each 

 a right to call his own, that any attempt 

 at usurpation is resented as the foulest in- 

 dignity, and the most furious contests 

 frequently occur in consequence of the 

 several claims for u favourite position. It 

 is stated, that in th j se combats two never 

 fall upon one. Tliese seals are said, in 

 grief, to shed tears very copiously. The 

 mule defends his young with the most 

 intrepid courage and fondness, and will 

 often beat the dam, notwithstanding her 

 most supplicating tones and gestures, un- 

 der the idea that she has been the 

 cause of the destruction or injury which 

 may have occurred to any of them. The 

 flesh of the old male seal is intolerably 

 strong; that of the female and the young 

 is considered as delicate and nourishing, 

 and compai-ed in tenderness and flavour 

 to the flesh of young pigs. 



The bottle-nosed seal is found on the 

 Falkland Islands, is twenty feet long, and 

 will produce a butt of oil, and discharge, 

 when stuck to the heart, two hogsheads 

 of blood. 



PHtENICOPTEROS, the flamingo, in 

 natural history, a genus of birds of the 

 order Grallx. Generic character : bill 

 naked, toothed, bending in the middle, 

 as if broken ; nostrils covered above 

 with a thin plate, and linear ; tongue car- 

 tilaginous and pointed ; neck, legs, and 

 thighs exceedingly long; feet webbed, 

 back-toe very small. The P. rubra, or 

 common flamingo, the only species notic- 

 ed by Latham, is nearly of the size of a 



goose, and upwards of four feet long*. 

 When mature in plumage, these b.rds 

 are all over of the most deep and beau- 

 tiful scarlet; but this maturity they 

 never acquire till their third year. They 

 are found in America, as far north as 

 the southern borders of the United 

 States ; France, Spain, and Italy, in Sy- 

 ria and in Persia, but more frequently 

 than any where else, on the coast of 

 Africa downwards to the Cape. They 

 build their nest of mud, in the shape 

 of a hillock, and in a cavity on the top 

 of it the female deposits two white 

 eggs, on which she sits, having her legs 

 dependent one on each side of the hil- 

 lock. The young ones run with great 

 swiftness, but are unable to fly till they 

 have attained nearly their complete 

 growth. They subsist chiefly on small 

 fishes, ova, and water insects, and fre- 

 quent, during the day, the borders of 

 rivers and lakes, withdrawing at night to 

 the high grounds, and lodging amidst the 

 long grass. They are extremely shy, and 

 are stated, almost always, unless in the 

 breeding season, to keep together in 

 flocks, Tiaving a centinel, ever vigilant 

 at his post, by whom the slightest ap- 

 proaching danger is announced, by inti- 

 mations which produce immediate flight. 

 Their flesh is thought by some not in- 

 ferior to that of the partridge, but their 

 tongue was one of the most valued 

 dainties of Roman epicurism. They have 

 been sometimes reared tame, but are 

 with difficulty preserved, and their sus- 

 ceptibility of cold is exquisite. 



PHCENIX, in astronomy, one of the 

 constellations of the southern hemi- 

 sphere, unknown to the ancients, and 

 invisible in our northern parts. This con- 

 stellation is said to consist of thirteen 

 stars. 



PntExix, in botany, a genus of the Ap- 

 pendix Palmse. Natural order of Palms. 

 Essential character : calyx three parted ; 

 corolla three-petalled : male, stamina 

 three ; female, pistil one ; drupe ovate. 

 There are two species, viz. P. dactylife- 

 ra, date palm-tree, and P. farinifera, na- 

 tives of the Levant and Coromandel. 



PHONICS, the doctrine or science of 

 sounds. See ACOUSTICS. This science 

 has been considered as analogous to 

 that of optics, and is divided into di- 

 rect, refracted, and reflected ; these 

 have been called phonics, diaphonics, 

 and cataphonics ; but the terms are now 

 well nigh obsolete. Phonics is a science 

 that may be improved with regard to 

 the object, the medium, and the organ, 



