PEL 
PEN 
lisle. These birds are shy and crafty, but 
frequently eat to so great an excess as to 
induce a species of lethargy, in which they 
are caught by nets thrown over them with- 
out their making an effort to escape. They 
are trained by the Chinese to fish for them. 
By a ring placed round their necks, they 
are prevented from swallowing what they 
take, and, when their pouches are filled, 
they unload them, and at the command of 
their owners, renew their divings : two will 
be seen combining their efforts to secure a 
fish, too large for the management of one 
only. When their work is finished to the 
employer’s satisfaction, the birds have a full 
allotment of the spoil, for their reward and 
encouragement. In Macao, also, these 
birds are thus domesticated, taking extreme 
delight in the exercise, and constituting a 
source of very considerable profit to their 
owners. They were formerly trained, and 
used in the same manner in England ; and 
Charles I. had an officer of his household, 
called master of the cormorants. See Aves, 
Plate XI. fig. 3. ■' 
P. bassanus, or the island-goose, or gan- 
net, weighs about seven pounds, and inha- 
bits, in great numbers, the northern isles of 
this kingdom. It is migratory, and drawn 
to this country by the shoals of herrings and 
pilchards, whose movements it watches with 
the most anxious vigilance. The young 
birds are sold in great plenty at Edinburgh, 
where they are frequently introduced be- 
fore dinner as a stimulus to appetite. In 
St. Kilda, it is supposed that upwards of 
twenty thousand of these birds are taken 
annually. They constitute an impoi tant ar- 
ticle of food to the inhabitants, who, to 
procure both the eggs and the young ones, 
expose themselves to the most imminent 
dangers on elevated and precipitous cliffs, 
and, in several instances have fallen victims 
to the hardihood with which they have pur- 
sued their researches. See Aves, Plate XI. 
fig. -1. 
PELECOIDE.S, in geometry, a figure 
in form of an hatchet : such is the figure 
B CD A, Plate XII. Miscel. fig. 7, contain- 
ed under the two inverted quadrantal arcs, 
A B, and A D, and the semi-circle, BCD. 
The area of the pelecoides is demonstrated 
to be equal to the square, A C, and that 
a^ain to the parallelogram, E B. It is equal 
to the square, A C, because it wants of the 
square on the left hand the two segments, 
A B, and A C, which are equal to the two 
segments, B C, and C D, by which it ex- 
ceeds on the right hand. 
PELICAN. See Pelecanus. 
PELLETS, in heraldry, are those roundles 
that are black, called also ogresses and gun- 
stones, and by the French torteaux de 
sable. 
PELTA, in botany, a term by which the 
flower or flat fructification of the genus 
lichen or lever-wort is characterized, which, 
in most of its species, is glued to the edges 
of the leaves. 
PELTARIA, in botany, a genus of the 
Tetradynamia Siliculosa class and order. 
Natural order of Siliquosa. Cruciformes or 
Cruciferas. Essential character : silicle en- 
tire, suborbiculate, compressed, flat, not 
opening. There are two species, viz. P. al- 
liacea, garlick scented peltaria, and P. ca- 
pensis, cape peltaria. 
PELVIS, in anatomy, the lower part of 
the cavity of the abdomen, thus called from 
its resemblance to a bason, or ewer, in Latin 
called pelvis. It is formed by the ossa ilia; 
and ischia, the os sacrum, the os coccygis, 
and the ossa pubis. See Anatomy. 
PEN, fountain, is a pen made of silver, 
brass, &c. contrived to contain a, consi- 
derable quantity of ink, and let it flow' out 
by gentle degrees, so as to supply the 
writer a long time without being under the 
necessity of taking fresh ink. 
PENdEA, in botany, so named from 
Peter Pena, a genus of the Tetrandria 
Monogynia class and order. Essential cha- 
racter : calyx two-leaved ; corolla bell- 
shaped ; style quadrangidar ; capsule four- 
cornered, four-celled, eight-seeded. Thefe 
are nine species ; these are shrubs which 
are rugged below, with the vestiges of fallen 
leaves, leafy above ; leaves opposite, cross- 
wise, sessile, approximating imbricately in a 
fourfold row, the upper ones near the 
flowers, like scales, and coloured ; flow- 
ers terminating, sessile, solitary, or se- 
veral together ; fruit as in the order of 
Acanthi, but four-celled j this genus may 
perhaps be allied to them, but having been 
hitherto little examined, except in dried 
specimens, the natural order of the genus 
Penaea must yet remain uncertain. Jus- 
sieu. 
PENAL Laws or Statutes, liaving been 
made on many occasions, to punish and de- 
ter offenders, they ought to be construed 
strictly, and not be extended by equity, but 
the words of them may be interpreted bene- 
ficially’ according to the intent of the le- 
gislator. 
PENALTY, is a forfeiture inflicted for 
