PHCE 
l)ial 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-occu- 
pancy may be supposed to give each a right 
to call his own, tliat any attempt at usurpa- 
tion is resented as the foulest indignity, and 
the most furious contests frequently occur 
in consequence of the several claims for a 
favourite position. It is stated, that in 
these combats two never fall upon one. 
These seals are said, in grief, to shed tears 
very copiously. The male defends his 
young with the most intrepid courage and 
fondness, and will often beat the dam, not- 
withstanding her most supplicating tones 
and gestures, under 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 
compared in tenderness and flavour to the 
flesh of young pigs. 
The bottle-nosed seat is found on the 
Falkland Islands, is twenty feet long, and 
will produce a butt of oil, and discharge, 
when struck to the heart, two hogsheads of 
blood. 
PHCENICOPTEROS, the flamingo, in 
natural history, a genus of birds of the or- 
der Grail®. Generic character ; bill naked, 
toothed, bending in the middle, as if 
broken ; nostrils covered above with a 
thin plate, and linear ; tongue cartilaginous 
and pointed ; neck, legs, and thighs exceed- 
ingly long; feet webbed, back- toe very 
small. The P. rubra, or common flamingo, 
the only species noticed by Latham, is 
nearly of the size of a goose, and upw’ards 
of four feet long. When mature in plu- 
mage, these birds are all over of the most 
deep and beautiful scarlet; but this matu- 
rity they never acquire till their third year. 
They are found in France, Spain, and Italy, 
in Syria 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 de- 
posits two white eggs, on which she sits, 
having her legs stretched out one on each 
side of the Jhbock. The young ones run 
with great swiftness, but are unable to fly 
till they have attained nearly their com- 
plete growth. They subsist chiefly on 
small fishes, ova, and w'ater insects, and fre- 
quent, during the day, the borders of rivers 
and lakes, withdrawing at night to the 
P H 0 
high grounds, and lodging amidst the long 
grass. They are extremely shy, and are 
stated, almost always, unless in the breed- 
ing season, to keep together in flocks, hav- 
ing a centinel ever vigilant at his post, by 
whom the slightest approaching danger is 
announced, by intimations which produce 
immediate flight. Their flesh is thought by 
some not inferior to that of the partridge, 
but their tongue was one of the most va- 
lued dainties of Roman epicurism. They 
have been sometimes reared tame, but are 
with difficulty preserved, and their suscep- 
tibility of cold is exquisite. 
PHQLNIX, in astronomy, one . of the 
constellations of the southern hemisphere, 
unknown to the ancients, and invisible in 
our northern parts. This constellation is 
said to consist of thirteen stars. 
Phcenix, in botany, a genus of the 
'Appendix Palm*. 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. dactylifera, date 
palm-tree, and P. farinifera, natives of the 
Levant and Coromandel. 
PHONICS, the doctrine or science of 
sounds. See Acoustics. This science has 
been considered as analogous to that of op- 
tics, and is divided into direct, refracted, 
and reflected ; these have been called pho- 
nics, diaphonics, and cataphonics; but the 
terms are now well nigh obsolete. Phonics 
is a science that may be improved with re- 
gard to the object, the medium, and the- 
organ. The object may be improved with 
respect to the production and propagation 
of sounds. With regard to the medium, 
phonics may be improved by its thinness 
and quiescency, and by the sonorous body 
being placed near a smooth wall, eitlier 
plain or arched, more especially if it be 
formed after some peculiar curve, as from 
this arises the theory and practice of whis- 
pering places. Sound is much sweetened 
if it is propagated in the vicinity of water, 
and on a plain, it will be conveyed much 
further than on uneven ground. 
PHORMIUM, in botany, a genus of the 
Hexandria Monogynia class and order. Na- 
tural order of Coronari®. A, sphodeli, Jus- 
sieu. Essential character: calyx none ; co- 
rolla six-petalled, the three inner petals 
longer ; capsule oblong, three-sided ; seeds 
oblong, compressed. There is but one 
species, viz. P. tenax. New Zealand- flax- 
plant. The inhabitants of New Zealand 
make a thread of the leaves, with which the 
