PRO 



PltO 



ven vide*. These birds are often seen 

 sailing 1 just above the water without mov- 

 ing their wings for along time together, 

 and, being particularly alert on the ap- 

 proach cf storms, often fill the mariner 

 with apprehension and alarm. They 

 abound most in southern latitudes, and 

 though their principal food is fish, de- 

 vour also the putrid carcases of seals and 

 whales. 



P. capcnsis, or the pintado petrel, 

 abounds about the coasts of the Cape of 

 Good Hope. These birds are about the 

 size of the kittiwake gull, and are often 

 observed in such numbers that many 

 hundreds have been taken in one night. 

 They are often taken with a rod and line 

 by a hook baited with lard. They fre- 

 quently discharge oil from their nostrils 

 on those who hold them, spurting it in 

 their faces with great violence. 



P. glacialis, or the fulmar petrel, 

 weighs nearly a pound and a half, and is 

 found in the northern coasts of this 

 island, and thence even beyond Iceland 

 and Greenland, where the natives use it 

 for food, though its flesh is highly offen- 

 sive to those not used to it. The fat is 

 burnt in their lamps. These birds sub- 

 sist chiefly on fish, but often banquet on 

 the carcases of whales, particularly the fat 

 parts, which they afterwards eject from 

 their stomachs into the mouths of their 

 young. They often spurt it in the faces 

 of their enemies, and exhibit indeed no 

 oilier mode of resistance. They are stat- 

 ed to be so amazingly fat, that, on being 

 passed through the hands with great 

 compression, the fat flows off' like oil. 



P. puffimts, or the shear water petrel, 

 is smaller than the last. These birds are 

 found in vast numbers in the Orkneys, 

 where they are highly valued for their 

 feathers as" well as flesh. They are in 

 some places salted and barrelled, especi- 

 ally in the Isle of Man. In Denmark they 

 sometimes reside in rabbit burrows. See 

 Aves, Plate XII. fig. 5. 



P. pelagica, or the stormy petrel, is of 

 the size of a swallow, and rarely seen but 

 at sea; and in tempestuous weather, num- 

 bers are observed frequently following', 

 as if for shelter, in the wakes of vessels. 

 They dive sometimes for half an hour to- 

 gether, and live principally upon fish, 

 but will eat a variety of offal throWn from 

 ships. In the Fcrro Islands they are so 

 astonishingly fat, that the natives'are stat- 

 ed to Use, them as candles after drawing 

 a wick through their bodies. Those are 

 the birds so ftell known to seamen 



by the name of " Mother Carey's Chick- 

 ens ;" they are the smallest species of 

 the genus, and are common on the sen 

 coast of the United States. See Aves, 

 Plate XII. fig. 6. 



PROCESS, in law, is the manner of 

 proceeding in every cause, being the 

 writs and precepts that proceed, or go 

 forth upon the original upon every ac- 

 tion, being either original or judicial. 



PROCKIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Polyandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Kosaceae, Jussieu. Es- 

 sential character : calyx three-leaved, 

 besides two-leaflets at the base ; corolla 

 none ; berry five cornered, many seed- 

 ed. There is but one species, viz. P. 

 crucis. 



PROCYON, in astronomy, a fixed star 

 of the second magnitude in the constella- 

 tion called canis minor. 



PRODUCING, in geometry, signifies 

 the drawing out a line further, till it have 

 any assigned length. 



PRODUCT, in arithmetic and geome- 

 try, the factum of two or more numbers, 

 or lines, 8cc. into one another : thus 5 X 

 4 = 20, the product required. In lines 

 it is always (and in numbers sometimes) 

 called the rectangle between the two 

 lines, or numbers, multiplied by one an- 

 other. 



PROFILE, in architecture, the draught 

 of a building, fortification, &c. wherein 

 are expressed the several heights, 

 widths, and thicknesses, such as they 

 would appear, were the building cut 

 down perpendicularly from the roof to 

 the foundation. 



PROFILE also denotes the outline of a 

 figure, building, member of architecture, 

 Sec. Hence profiling sometimes denotes 

 designing or describing the member with 

 a rule, compass, &c. 



PHOFILE, in sculpture and painting, de- 

 notes a head, portrait, &c. when repre- 

 sented side v,' ays, or in a side view. On 

 almost all medals, faces are represented 

 iu profile. 



PROGNOSTICS, among physicians, 

 signifies a judgment concerning the event 

 of a disease, as whether it shall end in life 

 or death, be short or long, mild or ma- 

 lignant, Sec. 



PROGRESSION, in mathematics, is 

 either arithmetical or geometrical. Con- 

 tinued arithmetic proportion, where the 

 terms do increase and decrease by equal 

 differences, is called arithmetic progres- 



