P E N E L 0, P E. 
535 
penduluhi muft be lengthened to meafttre mean time; 
but, if the three minutes had been lofs with a half-feconds 
pendulum, then -—-= '041 of an inch, or the 
fourth part of the former gain, will be the quantity by 
which the faid pendulum will require to be (hortened'. 
This rule is not only (hort in its application, but eafy 
to be remembered. 
PENEL'LA, a town of Portugal, in the province of 
Beira : fifteen miles fouth-eaft of Coimbra. 
PEN'EDON, a town of Portugal, in the province of 
Beira : nineteen miles north-eafl of Vifeu. 
PENEL'OPE, a celebrated princefs of Greece, daugh¬ 
ter of Icarius, and wife to Ulyfles king of Ithaca. Her 
marriage with Ulyfles was celebrated about the fame time 
that Menelatis married Helen; and (lie retired with her 
hufband to Ithaca, againft the inclination of her father, 
who wiflied to detain her at Sparta, her native country. 
Siie foon after became mother of Telemachus, and was 
obliged to part with great reluffance from her hufband, 
whom the Greeks obliged to go to the Trojan war. The 
continuation of hoftilities for ten years made her fad and 
melancholy; but, when Ulyfles did not return like the 
other princes of Greece at the conclufion of the war, her 
fears and her anxieties were increafed. As fhe received 
no intelligence of his fituation, (he was foon befet by a 
number of importuning fuitors, who wiflied her to be¬ 
lieve that her hufband was fhipwrecked, and that there¬ 
fore fhe ought no longer to expeff his return, but forget 
his lofs, and fix her choice and afteftfions on one of her 
numerous admirers. She received their addrefles with 
coldnefs and difdain ; but, as fhe was deftitute of power, 
■and a prifoner as it w'ere in their hands, fhe yet flattered 
•them with hopes and promifes, and declared that fhe 
would make choice of one of them as foon as fhe had 
■ finifhed a piece of tapeftry on which fhe was employed. 
The work was done in a dilatory manner; and fhe baffled 
their eager expeditions, by undoing in the night what 
fhe had done in the day-time. This artifice of Penelope 
has given rife to the proverb of Penelope's web, w’hich is 
applied to whatever labour can never be ended. The re¬ 
turn of Ulyfles after an abfence of twenty years, how¬ 
ever, delivered her from fears, and from her dangerous 
fuitors. 
Thus Penelope is defcribed by Homer as a model of fe¬ 
male virtue and chaftity; but fome more modern writers 
difpute her claims to modefty and continence, and they 
reprefent her as the mod debauched and voluptuous of 
her fex. According to their opinions, therefore, fhe libe¬ 
rally gratified the defires of her fuitors, in the abfence of 
her hufband, and had a foil whom fhe called Pan, as if to 
(how that he was the offspring of '‘all” her admirers. 
Some however fuppofe that Pan was foil of Penelope by 
Mercury, and that he was born before his mother’s mar¬ 
riage with Ulyfles. See Pan. After the return of Ulyfles, 
Penelope had a daughter, who was called Ptoliporthe; 
but, if we believe the traditions that were long preferved 
at Matinea, Ulyfles repudiated his wife for her inconti¬ 
nence during his abfence, and Penelope fled to Sparta, 
and afterwards to Mantinea, where fhe died and was bu¬ 
ried. After the death of Ulyfles, according to Hyginus, 
file married Telegonus, her hufband’s fon by Circe, by 
order of the goddefs Minerva. Some fay that her origi¬ 
nal name was'Arnea, or Amirace; and that, fhe was called 
Penelope, when fome river-birds 'called Penelopes had 
faved her from the waves of the fea, when her father had 
expofed her. Icarius had attempted to deftroy her, be- 
caufe the oracles had told him that his daughter by Peri- 
bcea would be the molt diflblute of her fex, and a difgrace 
to his family. 
PENEL'OPE,/. the Turkey Pheasant ; a genus of 
birds of the order gallinae. Generic characters—Bill na¬ 
ked at the bafe; head covered with feathers; chin naked; 
tail with twelve feathers; legs without fpurs. 
This beautiful genus of birds partakes of the form 
and nature of the Meleagris (turkey), the Phafianus 
Vol. XIX. No. 1323. 
(pheafant), and Crax (curaflow). It was inftituted by 
Gmelip in his laft edition of the Syft. Naturae; fo that 
the fix fpecies of which it confifts have been feleCted from 
the Linnsean genera we have mentioned. See the article 
Meleagris, vol. xv. p. 49. 
1. Penelope fatyra, the horned turkey-pheafant: two 
horns on the head ; body red, with ocellated fpots. This 
elegant and lingular bird derives its name from two pro¬ 
tuberances which grow from its head like horns, which 
are of a beautiful blue colour, a cylindrical fliape, blunt 
at their ends, reclined backwards, and confiding of a fttb- 
ftance refembling callous flefh. It has not that round 
circle about its eyes which occurs in the pheafants, and 
is fometimes dotted with black; the fpace which furrounds 
the eyes is fhaded with black hairs, like feathers. Un¬ 
der this fpace, and from the bottom of the lower mandi¬ 
ble, grows a kind of gorget, confiding of loofe fkin, 
which falls down and floats freely on the throat and the 
upper part of the neck: this gorget is black in the mid¬ 
dle, and is fprinkled with a few draggling hairs of the 
fame colour. It is marked with wrinkles ; fo that it ap¬ 
pears to admit of extenfion in the living animal, and can 
be inflated or cohtrafted at pleafure, like the caruncles 
of the turkey-cock : the lateral parts are blue, with fome 
fpots of orange, and without any hair on the outer fur- 
face ; but the infide, which applies to the neck, is (haded 
with little black feathers, as weil as that part of the neck 
which it covers. The crown of the head and fore part 
of the body are of a beautiful red, and the hind-part of 
a dufky orange. Over the whole bird, including even 
the tail and the wings, are a profufion of pellucid fpots, 
furrounded with black, and difperfed with confiderable 
regularity. Thefe fpots are round on the fore-part, and 
oblong or fli3ped like tears of pearl on the hind-part, 
with the point turned towards the head. In lize this 
bird is between a fowl and a turkey, and (hnped very much 
like the latter: “ the legs (Edwards fays) refemble thofe 
of the cock pheafant, being armed, like them, with (harp 
fpurs.” If fo, it is wrongly placed in this genus. 
The female, contrary to the ufual ordination of nature 
in the plumage of birds, is nearly if not quite as beauti¬ 
ful as the male. It is but of late date that thefe birds 
have been known in England. The male was firlt figured 
by Edwards, in his Gleanings of Natural Hiftory; and 
the female appeared only in 1798, in Mr. Pennant’s View 
of Hindooftan ; from the Britifli fettlements in which 
country it was brought by Sir Elijah Impey, on his re¬ 
turn to England. The principal dirtin&ion of this fex 
is, that it has not the horns, fo confpicuous in the male. 
The feathers on the front of the head, and part of the 
neck, are of a filky texture, black, glolfed with ultramarine 
blue; the feathers on the hind head are a beautiful crim- 
fon, forming a tuft or crefl flowing backward. The neck, 
the bread, the belly, and thighs, are of the fame glowing 
crimfon colour, which, as well as the back and wings, 
are fpangled with the fame pearly tears as in the male, 
though lefs numerous on. the wing-coverts: the back 
and wings, and fmaller tail-feathers, are of a rich orange 
ground, marked with minute black lines or bars; the tip 
of the tail black. Thefe bird's are by no means common 
in Hindooftan, though frequently feen in paintings done 
in India; where the male is called fmgec moory, or mar¬ 
bled bird ; and the female moory manmoorci, or the bright 
bird. 
2. Penelope criftata, the crefted penelope, or quan : 
an upright crefl on the head ; temples violet. Marcgrave 
was thefirfl who noticed this curious bird. Several or- 
nithologifts, copying him, have ranged it with the phea¬ 
fants : whilfl Brifl'on, Edwards, and Latham, have clafl'ed 
it with the turkey. It is rather larger than a fowl: length 
two feet fix inches; bill two inches long, and black; 
irides dull orange ; fides of the head covered with a naked 
purplifhblue (kin, in which the eyes are placed ; beneath 
the throat, for an inch and a half, the (kin is loofe, of a 
fine red colour, and covered only with a few hairs ; the 
top of the head is furniflied with long feathers, which 
6 X the 
