P I c 
S94 PIC 
the other ingredients of beauty it already poffeffed. On 
the whole, pifturefque compofition confifts in uniting in 
one whole a variety of parts, and thefe parts can only be 
obtained from rough objeds. 
It is poflible, therefore, to find pidurefque objeds 
among works of art, and it is poflible to make objeds fo; 
but the grand fcene of pidurefque beauty is nature in all 
its original variety, and in all its irregular grandeur. 
“ We leek it (fays our author) among all the ingredients 
of landfcape, trees, rocks, broken grounds, woods, rivers, 
lakes, plains, valleys, mountains, and diftances. Thefe 
objeds in themfelves produce infinite variety; no two 
rocks or trees are exadly the fame ; they are varied a 
fecond time by combination; and almoft as much a 
third time by different lights and lhades and other aerial 
effeds. Sometimes we find among them the exhibition 
of a whole, but oftener we find only beautiful parts.” 
Sublimity or grandeur alone cannot make an objed 
pidurefque: for, as our author remarks, “ however grand 
the mountain or the rock may be, it has no claim to this 
epithet, unlefs its form, its colour, or its accompaniments, 
have fome degree of beauty. Nothing can be more fub- 
lime than the ocean ; but wholly unaccompanied, it has 
little of the pidurefque. When we talk therefore of a 
fublime objed, we always underltand that it is alfo beau¬ 
tiful; and we call it fublime or beautiful only as the 
ideas of fublimity or Ample beauty prevail. But it is not 
only the form and the compofition of the objeds of 
landfcape which the pidurefque eye examines; it con- 
neds them with the atmofphere, and fecks for all thole 
various effeds which are produced from that vaft and 
wonderful florehoufe of nature. Nor is there in travel¬ 
ling a greater pleafure than when a fcene of grandeur 
burfts unexpectedly upon the eye, accompanied with 
fome accidental circumflance of the atmofphere which 
harmonizes with it, and gives it double value.” 
PICTURES'QUENESS, J\ State or quality of being 
pidurefque.—Deformity is to uglinefs what pidurejque- 
nefs is to beauty. Price's Effay on the Pidurefque. 
PICUIPIN'IMA, f. The Brafilian name of the Co- 
lumba pafferina. 
PICUM'NUS and PILUM'NUS, two deities at Rome, 
who prefided over the aufpices that were required before 
the celebration of nuptials. Pilumnus was fuppofed to 
patronize children, as his name feems in fome manner to 
indicate quod pellat mala hfantice. The manuring of 
lands was firft invented by Picumnus, from which reafon 
he is called Sterquilinius. Pilumnus is alfo invoked as 
the god of bakers and millers, as he is faid to have firft 
invented how to grind corn. Turnus boafted of being 
one of his lineal defcendants. Virg\ JEn. ix. 
PI'CUS, a king of Latium, fon of Saturn, who married 
Venilia, who is alfo called Canens, by whom he had 
Faunus. He was tenderly loved by the goddefs Pomona, 
and he returned a mutual affedion. As he was one day 
hunting in the woods, he was met by Circe, who became 
deeply enamoured of him, and who changed him into a 
woodpecker, called picas among the Latins. His wife 
Venilia was fo difconfolate when file was informed of his 
death, that file pined away. Some fuppofe that Picus 
was the fon of Pilumnus, and that he gave out prophecies 
to his fubjeds by means of a favourite woodpecker, from 
which circumflance originated the fable of his being 
metamorphofed into a bird. 
PI'CUS, f. the Woodpecker ; a genus of birds of 
the order picae. Generic charaders — Bill angular, 
ftraight, wedged at the tip ; noflrils covered with recum¬ 
bent fetaceous feathers; tongue round, worrn-.fha.ped, 
very long, bony, miflile, daggered, befet at the point 
with briftles bent back; it has ten tail-feathers, 
which are hard, rigid, and bifurcated into two fliarp 
points; the feet are formed for climbing. The birds of 
this genus receive their name from the facility with which 
they peck the infeds from the chinks of trees, and holes 
in the bark. They are often feen hanging by their claws, 
and refling upon their tails againfl the (lent of a tree; 
for which their llrong claws and ftiff bifurcated tail-fea¬ 
thers are admirably fitted ; (fee fig. 3 and 4, of the Engra¬ 
ving.) After darting, with flrength andnoife, their beak 
againfl the bark, they turn round with great alacrity, which 
manoeuvre has made the country people fuppofe that 
they go round to fee whether they have not pierced the 
tree through its body. The fad is, that this beating 
againfl the bark is for no other purpofe than to roufe the 
infefts, which the chink contains, and to force them to 
come out, which they would not do if their enemy were 
prefent; and foon after the pecker, turning round, takes 
them unawares, and feeds upon them. If the infects 
anfwer not the delufive call, the birds dart their long 
tongues into the hole, and bring out by this means their 
reludant prey. In confequence of thefe habits, the 
woodpecker was called, in Greek, hv$'£oy.o\a,Tr]r,<;, and 
from Ssv^ov, a tree, an oak, and 
xoAawiw, to hollow out by blows; alfo, fvAoHo 7 t<&, from 
|vA ov, wood, and xofflw, to cut; and in Hefychius 
c 7 rE\tyl&‘. Ariflophanes calls it weAe v.av, from ttsAehvj, 
an axe, all uding to the form and office of its bill : in mo¬ 
dern Greek it is xovgy.ovHtflr,;. Pliny terms it picus arbo- 
rarius. 
It may be obferved, (fays Buffon,) that only animals 
which live upon the fruits of the earth join in fociety. 
Nature entertains them with a perpetual banquet, and 
abundance begets thofe gentle difpofitions which are fit¬ 
ted for focial intercourfe. Other animals are conllantly 
engaged in the purfuit of prey : urged by want, rellrained 
by apprehenfions of danger, they depend for fubfillence 
on the vigour of their own exertions; they have fcarcely 
time to fatisfy their immediate defires, and no leifure to 
cherilh the benevolent afledions. Such is the folitary 
condition of all the carnivorous birds, except a few 
cowardly tribes which prowl on putrid carrion, and ra¬ 
ther combine like robbers than unite as friends. And 
of all the birds which earn their fubfillence by fpoil, none 
leads a life fo laborious and fo painful as the woodpecker. 
Nature has condemned it to inceflant toil and flavery. 
While others freely employ their courage or addrefs, and 
either flioot on rapid wing, or lurk in dole ambufli ; the 
woodpecker is conflrained to drag out an infipid existence 
in boring the bark and hard fibres of trees, toextrad its 
humble prey. Necefllty never fuffers any interiniflion of 
its labours; never grants an interval of found repofe : 
often during the night it fleeps in the fame painful pof- 
ture as in the fatigues of the day. It never fhares the 
cheerful fports of the other inhabitants of the air; it joins 
not their vocal concerts; and its wild cries, and faddening 
tones, while they dilturb the filenceol the foreft, exprels 
conllraint and effort. Its movements are quick ; its gef- 
tures full of inquietude ; its looks fad and melancholy ; 
it fhuns all fociety, even that of its own kind; and, when 
it is prompted by lull to feek a companion, its appetite 
is not foftened by delicacy of feeling. 
The woodpeckers of Africa agree in manners and ha¬ 
bits with thofe of Europe and America. The following 
additional obfervations are from Vaillant. Thefe birds 
live moftly in forells, preferring the largefl, the oldeft, 
and mod lofty, trees ; for among rotten wood they find 
both lodging and food. They are an emblem of labo¬ 
rious man, being ftationary, and, moftly, folitary; we 
fay moftly, becauie one fpecies is known to be gregarious; 
and accordingly that fpecies differs in fome other refpeds 
from its congeners. The woodpecker forms its lodging 
in the heart of fome worm-eaten tree, but neft it makes 
none: the female lavs five or fix whitifh eggs on the bare 
wood, trufting to the natural heat of her body to hatch 
them into life. The progeny iffue from the heart of the 
tree; and, though furnillied with wings, they are almoft 
confined to the verge of its circumference, and con¬ 
demned to tread the dull round of life. Like the labour¬ 
ing hind, the male, female, and all the young, colled in 
their humble and obfcure lodging at eve, and at break 
