416 
P I G 
PIG CREE K, a river of Virginia, which runs into 
the Staunton in lat. 36. 52. N. Ion. 79. 42. W. 
PIG-HEAD'ED, adj. Plaving a large head ; a word 
ftill vulgarly applied to a ftupid perfon, and to an obfti- 
nate perfon.—Come forward: you ftiould be fome dull 
tradefman by your pig-headed fconce now, that think 
there’s nothing good any where, blit what’s to be fold. 
B. Janfoii's Mafqnes. 
PIG'-IRQN. See Mineralogy, vol. xv. p. 497. 
PIG'-NUT, or Earth-nut. See Bunium. —I with 
my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts. Shahefpeare. 
PIG'-STY, the name of the place where fwine are 
kept. 
PIGAL'LE (John Baptift), an eminent French fculp- 
tor, born at Paris in 1714, was the fon of a carpenter 
employed in the royal buildings. He had early a fond- 
refs for modelling, which gave him a defire for excelling 
in the art of fculpture; but nature had been fo little 
bountiful to him, that it coft him the greateft labour and 
afliduity to make a progrefs. After having for many 
3 ears been a pupil of Le Lorraine and Lemayne, he was 
furnifhed by the liberality of fome friends with the means 
of vifiting Italy. He fpent three years at Rome in copy¬ 
ing after the antique; and on his return ftopt at Lyons, 
where he met with employment which occupied him a 
year and a half. At this place he finiihed the model of a 
ftatue of Mercury, which he brought with him to Paris, 
where it was greatly admired. It was, however, a confi- 
derable time before he met with encouragement; but at 
length he excited the attention of the minifter, and, what 
was of more importance, of Mad. Pompadour, and ob¬ 
tained feveral commiflions. He was admitted into the 
Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1744. Having 
executed his Mercury in marble, he made a Venus for its 
companion, which was equally applauded ; both thefe 
lfatues were prefented by the king to his majefty of Pruf- 
f:a in 1748. Pigalle continued to rife in reputation ; and 
in 1756 was engaged to execute the maufoleum of marfhai 
Saxe. H is fucceis in this work placed him among the 
firft of French artifts: a writer of that country, indeed, 
has called it “ the grandeft compofition in fculpture that 
exifts.” It caufed him to be employed for the monu¬ 
ment erected in 1765 by the city of Rheims to the glory 
of Louis XV. and that king, as a teftimony of his Tatis- 
fa&ion, made him royal fculptor, and decorated him 
with the order of St. Michael. It was a circumftance pe¬ 
culiarly flattering to him, that Bouchardon committed 
to him the finiflring of his famous equeftrian flatue in the 
Place de Louis XV. He vifited Voltaire at Ferney, in or¬ 
der to model his buft, which, when finifned, was a ftri- 
ki.ngand charadferiflic likenefs, but difgufting from the 
exadnefs with which his lean fcraggy neck was repre- 
fented. The monument of marfhai Saxe was not put up 
at Strafbnrg till 1776. On that occafion, Pigalle took the 
opportunity of vifiting Berlin, in order to fee the great 
Frederic, and to view once more his own two ftatues. 
As he flood with a friend among the crowd at a grand 
rourt-fupper, the king, obferving a flranger, fent to aflc 
his name. His friend ofircioufly anfwered, in French, 
“ It is the author of the Mercure.” Frederic, who had 
been uncivilly treated in the French journal called “ Le 
Mercure,” fuppofed him to be the direftor of that work, 
and took no further notice of him. Pigalle was mortified, 
and would have departed immediately had he not been 
.defirous of feeing his ftatues. He went next day to Potf- 
dam for that purpofe; and, after examining his Mercury, 
laid, “ I ftiouid have been very forry to have done no 
better fince.” After he was gone, Frederic learned the 
tuiftake he had made, andcau:ed his librarian to write to 
the artift, exprefling his concern for the circumftance. 
In 178-0 he was employed on a grand monument for the 
Comte d’Harcourt. His concluding piece was the figure 
of a young girl taking a thorn out of her foot, which was 
greatly admired for its beauty and-delicacy. He died in 
1785, being then reflor and chancellor of the academy. 
P I G 
Pigalle was a man of a noble and generous charafter, 
liberal to the indigent, and much attached to his family 
and friends. He married at an advanced age his own 
niece, by whom he had no children. As an artift he was 
entirely indebted to ftudy and application : his fkill was 
rather talent than genius, and his ideas were rather juft 
than extenfive. Befides the works which have been enu¬ 
merated, one of his moft applauded performances was a 
child holding a cage out of which a bird had flown. He 
alfo executed feveral pieces for the churches of Paris; and 
the bufts of fome literary friends, which are reckoned 
ftriking likenefles. D'Argenville. 
PIGANIOL' de la FOR'CE (John Aymar de), a 
native of Auvergne, of a noble family, applied himfelf 
with ardour to the ftudy of geography and of the hiftory 
of France. With the view of improving himfelf in this 
ftudy, he travelled into different provinces; and, in the 
courfe of his travels, made fome important obfervations 
on the natural hiftory, the commerce, the civil and eccle- 
fiaftical government, of each province. Thefe obferva¬ 
tions were of great ufe to him in compiling the works he 
has left behind him, of which the chief are, 1. An Hifto- 
rical and Geographical Defcription of France; the largeft 
edition of which is that of 1753, in 15 vols. nmo. 2. A 
Defcription of Paris, in 10 vols. nmo. a work equally en¬ 
tertaining and inftrudtive, and written with an elegant 
fimplicity : he publiflied an abridgment of it in 2 vols. 
nmo. 3. A defcription of the Caftle and Park of Ver- 
failles. Marly, See. in 2 vols. nmo. Piganiol had alfo a 
concern with Abbe N adal in the Journal of Trevoux. He 
died at Paris in February 1753, at the age of 80 years. 
This learned man was as much refpefted for his manners 
as for his talents. To a profound and varied knowledge 
he united great probity and honour, and all the polite- 
nefs of a courtier. 
PIG'EON, f. [French.) A well known domeftic bird 
See the article Columba.— This fellow' picks up wit as 
pigeons peas. Shahefpeare. 
Fix’d in the mail, the feather’d weapon Hands, 
The fearful pigeon flutters in her bands. Dryden. 
Since the article Columba was printed, we have re¬ 
ceived the fixth and laft volume of Monf. le Vaillant’s 
Hiftoiredes Oifeaux d’Afrique, which contains fome very 
interefting obferyations on this tribe of birds, with fome 
new fpecies, illuftrated with beautiful engravings. Some 
of thefe remarks we (hall tranflate, as well as his defcrip¬ 
tion of the fpecies we think abfolutely new; anti fliall 
take that opportunity of adding three or four recently- 
dilcovered fpecies from other fources. 
Monf. le Vaillant wifhes to diftribute the fpecies of 
this genus into three divifions, or families, the characters 
of which he confiders as fufficiently diftinft to form 
even three genera, Ihould that be hereafter thought ad- 
vifeable. 
In the firft family, or divifion, he would include, 
under the name Co/omhe, all pigeons properly fo called j 
i. e. thofe commonly known in their domeftic ftate, what¬ 
ever might be their fuppofed origin; wild pigeons, or 
ring-doves, or wood-pigeons ; and laftly, turtle doves. 
In the fecond, under the name of Colomhar, he includes 
all the fpecies with thick bills, the mandibles fwelling 
out like the Buphaga, or beef-eater; their legs are fhort 
and thick, their toes broad and flat, partly united at the 
bafe, and forming a foot like thofe of the hornbills and 
kingfilhers. They are farther diftinguilhed by having 
much yellow and green in their plumage, w’hereas neither 
the domeftic nor the wild pigeons of Europe or of Ame¬ 
rica have any fcarcely of thofe colours. The Columba 
vernans, or parrot-pigeon, vol. iv. p. 818, is one of the 
fpecies which would belong to this divifion. All the 
fpecies live entirely on fruit, and never quit the large 
woods. 
In the third divifion, under the name of Colomhi-galline, 
he would include thofe fpecies which form a connecting 
link 
