PIE 
long, and strikes witli far greater compara* 
live force against the trees tlian any of the 
tribe. It creeps with facility over tlie 
branches in every direction, and when any 
person attempts to observe it on one side of 
a branch passes to the opposite with ex- 
treme celerity, repeating this change in 
correspondence with every renewed effort 
of the enemy. For the greater spotted wood- 
pecker, see Aves, Piate XII. fig. 3. 
PIECE, in coniinerre, signifii s some- 
times a whole, and sometimes a part ot the 
whold. In the first sense, we say a piece of 
cloth or velvet,&c. meaning a certain quan- 
tity of yards regulated by custom ; being 
yet entire, and not ctrt, In the other signi- 
fication we say a piece of tapestry ; mean- 
ing a distinct member wrought apart, 
which, wdth several others, make one 
hanging. 
Piece, in matters of money, signifies 
sometimes the same thing with species ; and 
sometimes by adding the value of the 
pieces, it is used to express such as have no 
other particular name. 
Piece, in heraldry, denotes an ordinary 
or charge. See Oiidinary and Charge. 
The honourable pieces of the shield are 
the chief, fesse, bend, pale, bar, cross, 
saltier, chevron, and in general all those 
which may take up one-third of the field, 
when alone, and in what planner soever it 
be. 
Pieces, in the military art, include all 
sorts of great guns and mortars. Battering 
pieces are the larger sort of gnns used at 
sieges for making the breaches, such are 
the twenty-four pounder, and cnlverin, 
the one carrying twenty-four, and the other 
an eighteen pound ball. Field pieces are 
twelve-ppnnders, demiculverins, six-ppnnd- 
ers, makers, minions, and three-pounders, 
which maich witlr the a'^y; ^^od encamp 
always behind the second line, but in the 
day of battle are in the front. A soldier’s 
firelock is likewise called his piece. 
PIEPOWDER is a court held for the 
redress of grievances, in remedying and in- 
forcing of contracts at fairs. 
PIER, or Peer, in building, denotes a 
mass of stone, &c, opposed by way of 
fortre.ss against the force of the sea, or a 
great liyer, for the security of ships that lie 
at harbour in any haven. 
PIERCED, or Perce', in heraldry, is 
when any ordinary is perforated, or struck 
through, showing, as it were, a hole in it, 
which must be expressed in blazon, as to its 
shape ; thus if a cross have a square hole, or 
PIL 
perforation in the centre, it is blazoned 
square-pierced, which is more proper than 
quarterly-pierced, as Leigh expresses it. 
When the hole or perforation is round, it 
must be expressed round pierced ; if it be 
in the shape of a lozenge, it is expressed 
pierced lozenge- ways. All piercings must 
be of the colour of the field, and w'hen such 
figures appear on the centre of a cross, &c. 
of another colour, the cross is not to be 
supposed pierced, but that the figure on it 
is a charge, and must be accordingly 
blazoned. 
PIGEON. See Coeumba. 
Pigeons, By .statute 1, James I. c. 27. 
the shooting at a pigeon is punishable with 
201. tine, or commitment for three months. 
PIGMENTS, are preparations, in a solid 
form, chiefly employed by painters, for 
imitating particular colours, and imparting 
them to the surface of bodies, They are 
obtained from animal, vegetable, and mine- 
ral substances : the latter are the most 
durable. See Coeours. 
PIKE, an offensive weapon, consisting 
of a shaft of wood, twelve or fourteen feet 
long, headed with a flat-pointed steel, call- 
ed the spear. The pike was a long time in 
use among the infantry, to enable them to 
sustain the attack of the cavalry, but it is 
now taken from them, and the bayonet, 
which fixes on at the end of the carbine, 
is substituted in its place. Yet the pike 
still continues the weapon of the serjeants, 
who fight pike in hand, salute with the 
pike, &c. 
PILASTER, in architecture, a square 
column, sometimes insulated, but more fre- 
quently let within a wall, and only showing 
a fourth or fifth part of its thickness. See 
A-rchitecture. 
PILCHARD, a species of tlie Clupea, 
or Herring genus. The pilchard is less than 
the herring, but fatter and more abundant 
in oil. The pilchard appears in vast shoals 
off the Corni^i coasts, about the middle of 
Jiiily. Their approach is known by much 
the same signs as those that indicate the 
arrival of the hearing, To the inhabitants 
of Cornwall, the pilchard fishery is a very 
profitable concern, Thousands of persons 
are employed, during the season, in catch- 
ing and curing the fisli ; and the fishermen 
and merchants make large gains in sending 
them to Italy, Spain, See, Nearly 30,000. 
hogsheads are exported annually. 
PILE, any heap, as a pile of balls, shells, 
&c. 
PiEE, in antiquity, a pyramid built of 
