PAR 
a genus of birds of the order Passeres. 
Generic cliaracter : bill strait, somewhat 
compressed, strong, hard, and pointed ; 
nostrils round, and covered with bristles 
turned back over (hem from the base of 
the bill; tongue truncated, and bristly at 
the end ; toes divided to their origin, the 
back one very large and strong. These 
birds are found in almost every part of the 
old Continent, from the north of Europe to 
the south of India, and are highly prolific, 
laying eighteen or twenty eggs, which they 
hatch with unwearied patience. They 
build their nest with particular neatness 
and skill, and frequently on the extremity 
of some branch suspended over water, by 
which they secure it from the attack of 
various animals to which it might otherwise 
fall a prey. They are wonderfully active 
and alert, rapid and assiduous in their 
search for insects, on which they princi- 
pally subsist, under the bark and in the 
crevices of trees, which they clear of the 
immense multitudes of caterpillars cover- 
ing them in spring, and which would to- 
tally blast their vegetation. They are in 
no country migratory, though they occa- 
sionally change their residence for short dis- 
tances. They are impassioned and irasci- 
ble to a great degree, and when irritated 
will display that ardent eye and muffled 
plumage which indicate the paroxysm of 
agitation. Their courage is of the first or- 
der, as they are known sometimes to attack 
birds three times their size. Even the owl 
is by no means secure from their rage, and 
whatever bird they pursue, their first at- 
tempts are levelled at the head, and parti- 
cularly at the eyes and brains, the latter of 
which they eat with particular avidity and 
relish. Graelin enumerates thirty-one spe- 
cies, and Latham twenty-seven. 
P. major, or the greater titmouse, weighs 
about an ' ounce. The male and female 
associate for some time before they begin 
to build, Vhich they do with the most 
downy materials, and generally in the hole 
of some tree. The young continue blind 
for several days, and after they have left 
the nest never return to it, but continue, 
however, in the same neighbourhood, with 
the appearance of great family attachment, 
till the ensuing spring. See Aves, Plate X. 
fig. 7. 
P. cteruleus, or the blue titmouse, is 
eminently beautiful, and highly serviceable 
in destroying caterpillars in orchards and 
gardens. It picks the bones of small birds 
to the most complete cleanness, and is dis- 
PAS 
tinguished by the bitterness of its aversion 
to the owl. See Aves, Plate X. fig. 8. 
P. caudatus, or the long-tailed titmouse, 
lives in the same manner as the former, 
and has the same general habits with the 
rest of the genus, but builds its nest with 
peculiar care and elegance, securing, in the 
completest manner, the two important 
circumstances of dryness and warmth ; the 
silken threads of aurelias constitute a prin- 
cipal article for those purposes. It is ac- 
tive even to restlessness, perpetually flying 
backwards and forwards, and running up 
and down the branches of trees in every 
possible direction. It possesses all the full- 
ness of plumage of the owl. 
PASCAL(Blaise), arespectable French 
mathematician and philosopher, and one of 
the greates't geniuses and best writers that 
country has produced. He was born at 
Clermont in Auvergne, in the year 1623. 
His fatlier, Stephen Pascal, was president 
of the Court of Aids in his. province: he 
was also a very learned man, an able ma- 
thematician, and a friend of Des Cartes. 
Having an extraordinary tenderness for this 
child, his only son, he quitted his province, 
and settled at Paris in 1631, that he might 
be quite at leisure to attend to his son’s edu- 
cation, which he conducted himself, and 
young Pascal never had any other master. 
From his infancy Blaise gave proofs of a 
very extraordinary capacity. He yas ex- 
tremely inquisitive; desiring to know the 
reason of every thing ; and when good rea- 
sons were not given him, he would seek 
for better ; nor would he ever yield his as- 
sent but upon such as appeared to him well 
grounded. What is told of his manner of 
learning the mathematics, as well as the 
progress he quickly made in that science, 
seems almost miraculous. His father, per- 
ceiving in him an extraordinary inclhiation 
to reasoning, was afraid lest the knowledge 
of the mathematics might hinder his learn- 
ing the languages, so necessary as a founda- 
tion to all sound learning. He therefore 
kept him as much as he could from all no- 
tions of geometry, locked up all his books 
of that kind, and refrained even from speak- 
ing of it in his presence. He could not 
however prevent his son from musing on 
that science ; and one day in particular he 
surprised him at work with charcoal upon 
his chamber floor, and in the midst of 
figures. The fether asked him what he was 
doing : I am searching, says Pascal, for such 
a thing; which was just the same as the 32d 
pro.pusition of the 1st book of Euclid. He 
