dusky. It is a native of St. Domingo, where it has gained the name of organiste from its note, forming the completest octave in the most agreeable manner, one note successively after another. It is said not to be uncommon, but not easy to be shot, as, like the creeper, it perpetually shifts to the opposite part of the branch from the spectator's eye, so as to elude his vigilance. It is most likely the very bird mentioned by Du Pratz, above quoted, whose notes, he says, are so varied and sweet, and which warbles so tenderly, that those who have heard it value much less the song of the nightingale. It is said to sing for nearly two hours without scarce taking breath, and, after a respite of about the same time, begins again. Du Pratz, who himself has heard it, says that it sung perched on an oak, near the house he was then in. 2. P. rupricola, the crested manakin, is about the size of a small pigeon, being about ten or twelve inches long. The bill is about an inch and a quarter long, and of a yellowish color. The head is furnished with a double round crest; the general color of the plumage is orange, inclining to saffron; the wing-coverts are loose and fringed; the quills are partly white and partly brown; the tail feathers are twelve; the base half of the ten middle ones is of an orange color, thence to the ends they are brown; the outer feathers are brown, and the base half of the inner web is orange; all are similarly fringed; the upper tail coverts are very long, loosely webbed, and square at the ends; the legs and claws are yellow. The female is altogether brown, except the under wing-coverts, which are of a rufous orange; the crest is neither so complete nor rounded as that of the male. Both inales and females are at first gray, or of a very pale yellow, inclining to brown. The male does not acquire the orange color till the second year, neither does the female the full brown. This beautiful species,' says Latham, inhabits various parts of Surinam, Cayenne, and Guiana, in rocky situations; but is nowhere so frequent as in the mountain Luca, near the river Oyapoc, and in the mountain Courouaye, near the river Aprouack, where they build in the cavernous hollows, and the darkest recesses. They lay two round white eggs, the size of those of a pigeon, and make the nest of a few dry bits of sticks. They are in general very shy, but have been frequently tamed, insomuch as to run at large among the poultry. It is said that the female, after she has laid eggs for some years, and ceases so to do more, becomes at the ensuing moult of the same color as the male, and may be mistaken for him; in this imitating the females of various kinds of poultry, such as the peacock, pheasant, &c. See PAVO, &c. A most complete pair is in the Leverian Museum. Our author describes a variety of this species, which he calls the Peruvian manakin. It is longer than the preceding, especially in the tail, and the upper coverts of it are not truncated at the ends; the wing coverts are not fringed as in the rock manakin, and the crest is not so well defined as in that bird; the general color of the plumage inclines much to red; the second coverts and rump are of an ash color; the wings and tail are black; the bill and legs are as in the last described. It is an inhabitant of Peru, whence its name. PIQUA, or PIQUATOWN, a post town of Miami county, Ohio, on the Great Miami, 130 miles from its mouth; eight miles north of Troy, thirty south of Wapaghkanetta, sixty-seven W. N. W. of Columbus, 125 south of Fort Meigs. It is delightfully situated, and is a flourishing town. PIQUANT, adj. Fr. piquant. Piercing; stimulating to the taste. Some think their wits asleep, except they dart out somewhat that is piquant, and to the quick; that is a vein that would be bridled; and men ought to find the difference between saltness and bitterness. Bacon's Essays. A small mistake may leave upon the mind a lasting memory of having been piquantly, though wittily, taunted. Locke. Men make their railleries as piquant as they can to wound the deeper. Government of the Tongue. There are vast mountains of a transparent rock, extremely solid, and as piquant to the tongue as salt. Addison on Italy. PIQUE, n. s. & v. a. Fr. pique, piquer. Ill will; offence taken; petty malevolence: to touch with, or provoke to ill will; also, with the reciprocal pronoun, to value; to fix reputation as on a point. Fr. se piquer. lousy with the king his father. Bacon's Henry VII. He had never any the least pique, difference, or jeaMen take up piques and displeasures at others, and then every opinion of the disliked person must partake of his fate. Decay of Piety. Though he have the pique and long, 'Tis still for something in the wrong; As women long, when they're with child, For things extravagant and wild. Hudibras. Add long prescription of established laws, And pique of honour to maintain a cause, And shame of change. Dryden. Out of a personal pique to those in service, he stands as a looker-on, when the government is attacked. Addison. Piqued by Protogenes' fanie, From Cos to Rhodes Apelles came, Prepared to censure or commend. Prior. Why pique all mortals, that affect a name! A fool to pleasure, yet a slave to fame ! Pope. The lady was piqued by her indifference, and began to mention going away. Female Quixote. PIQUE, Fr. in music, or Piquiren, a German expression for staccato; but these terms apply more generally to violin passages, because they denote a greater degree of staccato execution than the piano forte is capable of producing. PIQUEER'ER, n. s. Rather pickeerer. Ital. piccare. A robber; plunderer. When the guardian professed to engage in faction, the word was given, that the guardian would soon be seconded by some other picqueerers from the same camp. Swift. PIQUET', n. s. Fr. picquet. A game at cards. See PICQUET. Prior. She commonly went up at ten, Unless piquet was in the way. Instead of entertaining themselves at ombre or piquet, they would wrestle and pitch the bar. Spectator. PIRA ACANGATA, the name of a Brasilian fish which resembles the perch in size and shape, seldom exceeding four or five inches in length; its mouth is small; its tail forked. On the back it has only one long fin, supported by rigid and prickly spines. This fin it can depress at pleasure, and sink within a cavity in the back. Its scales are of a silvery white color; it is wholesome and well tasted. eyes PIRA COABA, the name of an American fish of the trutaceous kind, of a very delicate flavor. It grows to twelve inches; its nose is pointed, and its mouth large, but without teeth; the upper jaw is longer than the under one, and hangs over like a cartilaginous prominence; its are very large, and its tail is forked; under each of the gill fins there is a beard of six white filaments, covered with silvery scales. Marcgrave. PIRA PIXANGA, another Brasilian fish of the turdus or wrasse kind, called by some the gatvisch. It is generally about four or five inches long; its mouth is pretty large, and furnished with very small, and very sharp teeth; its head is small, but its eyes are large and prominent, the pupil being of a fine turquoise color, and the iris yellow and red in a variety of shades. The coverings of the gills end in a triangular figure, and are terminated by a short spine or prickle; its scales are very small, and so evenly arranged, and closely laid on the flesh, that it is very smooth to the touch; its tail is rounded at the end; its whole body, head, tail, and fins, are of a pale yellow color, variegated all over with very beautiful blood-colored spots: these are round, and of the size of hemp seed on the back and sides, and something larger on the belly; the fins are all spotted in the same manner, and are all marked with an edge of red. It is caught among the rocks, and about the shores, and is a very well tasted fish. PIRACY, n. s. Fr. pirate; Lat. piPIRATE, n. s. & v. n. rata; Greek πειρατης. PIRATICAL, adj. S Robbery at sea; a searobber: to take by robbery : predatory; consisting with robbery: all these terms have been metaphorically applied by booksellers and authors, to the fraudulent invasion of COPYRIGHT, which For PIRACY, by the ancient common law, if committed by a subject, was held to be a species of treason, being contrary to his natural allegiance; and, by an alien, to be felony only: but now, since the statute of treasons, 25 Edw. III. c. 2, it is held to be only felony in a subject. merly it was only cognisable by the admiralty courts, which proceed by the rules of the civil law. But, it being inconsistent with the liberties of the nation that any man's life should be taken away, unless by the judgment of his peers, or the common law of the land, the statute 28 Hen. VIII. c. 15 established a new jurisdiction for this purpose, which proceeds according to the course of the common law. This offence, by common law, consists in committing those acts of robbery and depredation upon the high seas, which, if committed upon land, would have amounted to felony there. But, by statute, some other offences are made piracy also: as, by statute 11 and 12 W. III. c. 7, if any natural born subject commits any act of hostility upon the high seas, against others of his majesty's subjects, under color of a commission from any foreign power; this, though it would only be an act of war in an alien, shall be construed piracy in a subject. And farther, any commander, or other seafaring person, betraying his trust, and running away with any ship, boat, ordnance, ammunition, or goods; or yielding them up voluntarily to a pirate; or conspiring to do these acts; or any person assaulting the commander of a vessel, to hinder him from fighting in defence of his ship; or confining him, or causing or endeavouring to cause a revolt on board; shall, for each of these offences, be adjudged a pirate, felon, and robber, and shall suffer death, whether he be principal, or merely accessory by setting forth such pirates, or abetting them before the fact, or receiving or concealing them or their goods after it. By the stat. 8 Geo. I. c. 24, the trading with known pirates, or furnishing them with ammunition, or fitting out any vessel for that purpose, or in anywise consulting, combining, confederating, or corresponding with them; or the forcibly boarding any merchant vessel, though without seizing or carrying her off, and destroying or throwing any of the goods overboard; shall be deemed piracy; and such accessories to piracy as are described by the statute of king William are declared to be principal pirates; and all pirates convicted by virtue of this act are made felons without benefit of clergy. By the same statutes also (to encourage the defence of merchant vessels against pirates), the commanders or seamen wounded, and the widows of such seamen as are slain, in any piratical engagement, shall be entitled to a bounty, to be divided among them, not exceeding one-fiftieth part of the value of the cargo on board and such wounded seamen shall be entitled to the pension of Greenwich hospital; which no other seamen are, except only such as PIRAEUS, or PIREUS, portus, in ancient geography, a celebrated port on the west of Athens, consisting naturally of three harbours or basins, was originally a village of Attica, on an island; and, though distant forty stadia from Athens, was joined to it by two long walls, and itself walled round; with a very commodious and safe harbour. The whole of its compass was sixty stadia, including the Munychia. Near the Piræus stood the sepulchre of Themistocles; whither his friends conveyed his bones from Magnesia. The entrance of the Piraus is narrow, and formed by two rocky points, one belonging to the promontory of Etion, the other to that of Alcimus. Within were three stations for shipping; Kantharus, so called from a hero of that name; Aphrodisium, from a temple of Venus; and Zea, the resort of vessels laden with grain. Here was a demos or borough town of the same name before the time of Themistocles, who recommended the exchanging its triple harbour for the single one of Phalerum, both as more capacious and as better situated for navigators. The wall was begun by him when archon, in the second year of the seventy-fifth Olympiad, A. A. C. 477; and afterwards he urged the Athenians to complete it as the importance of the place deserved. This whole fortification was of hewn stone, without cement or other material, except lead and iron, which were used to hold together the exterior ranges or facings. It was so wide that the loaded carts could pass on it in different directions, and it was forty cubits high, which was, however, only half what he had designed. Hippodamus, a celebrated architect, was employed to lay out the ground. Five porticoes, which uniting formed the long portico, were erected by the ports. Here was an agora or market-place, and, farther from the sea, another called Hippodamia. Near the vessels dwellings for mariners. A theatre was opened, temples were raised, and the Piræus, which surpassed the city in utility, began to equal it in dignity. The cavities and windings of Munychia, natural and artificial, were filled with houses; and the whole settlement, comprehending Phalerum and the ports of the Piraus, with the arsenals, the storehouses, the famous armory of which Philo was the architect, and the sheds for 300, and afterwards 400, triremes, resembled the city of Rhodes, which had been planned by the same Hippodamus. The ports, on the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, were secured with chains. Sentinels were stationed, and the Piræus was carefully guarded. It was reduced with great difficulty by Sylla, who demolished the walls, and were set fire to the armory and arsenals. In the civil war it was in a defenceless condition. Calenus, lieutenant to Cæsar, seized it, invested Athens, and ravaged the territory. Strabo, who lived under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius, observes that the many wars had destroyed the long walls, with the fortress of Munychia, and had contracted the Piræus into a small settlement by the ports and the temple of Jupiter. In the second century, besides houses for triremes, the temple of Jupiter and Minerva remained, with their images in brass, and a temple of Venus, a portico, and the tomb of Themistocles. The port of the Piræus has been named Porto Lione, from its marble lion, and also Porto Draco. The lion was a piece of admirable sculpture, ten feet high, and reposing on its hinder parts. It was pierced, and, as some think, belonged to a fountain. Near Athens, in the way to Eleusis, was another, couchant; probably its companion. Both these were removed to Venice by general Morosini, and placed in front of the arsenal. PIRANESI, an eminent Venetian architect and engraver, born about 1711. He was remarkable for a bold and free manner of etching, whereby he drew his figures upon the plate at He died in 1780. once. PIRATE is used for an armed ship that roams the seas without any legal commission, and seizes or plunders every vessel she meets indiscriminately, whether friends or enemies. PIRENE, a fountain sacred to the Muses, springing below the top of the Acrocorinthus, a high and steep mountain which hangs over Corinthus. Its waters were agreeable to drink, extremely clear, very light and pale, representing the grief of Pirene, and the paleness brought on by the too eager pursuits of the Muses. Plin. Paus. Strab. Athen. Pers. PIRENE, in mythology, a daughter of the river god Achelous, who had two sons by Neptune, named Leches and Cenchrius, from whom the two harbours of Corinth were named. The latter was killed by Diana, and Pirene was so disconsolate for his death that she wept continually till she was dissolved into the fountain that bears her name. PIRISTENA, or PRISTENA, a town of Turkey in Europe, near Cossora, in the west of Romania, 118 miles east of Ragusa. It is a bishop's see, and contains 9000 or 10,000 inhabitants, but is little known or visited by travellers. PIRITIOUS, in fabulous history, a king of the Lapithæ, in Thessaly, son of Ixion and the cloud; or, as others say, of Jupiter and Dia. Hearing of the exploits of Theseus, he resolved to try his valor by invading Attica; but, when the two monarchs met at the head of their armies, they formed a lasting friendship, which afterwards became proverbial. Pirithous soon after married Hippodamia, the daughter of Adrastus, king of Argos, when as well as the Centaurs the gods themselves were invited, but Mars, the god of war, being excepted, avenged the neglect by occasioning dissension among the guests. The centaur Eurythion, attempting to offer violence to the bride, was killed by Theseus; on which a general battle ensued between the Centaurs and Lapitha, wherein the former were defeated. See LAPITHA. After this, Hippodamia dying, Pirithous became disconsolate; till, consulting with Theseus, they formed the desperate enterprize of descending to hell, and carrying off the goddess Proserpine; for which Pluto condemned Pirithous to be tied to Ixion's wheel, or worried by the dog Cerberus. But he was soon after deilvered by Hercules, and restored to his kingdom PIRMASENZ, a town in the Bavarian province of the Rhine, chiefly noted for its respectable public buildings, and having been in the course of the last century the capital of Hesse Darmstadt. At this period it had nearly 9000 inhabitants; but they have since diminished to little more than one-third of that number. It has an elegant council-house, a Lutheran school and church, and a Calvinist church. On the 14th September 1793 the duke of Brunswick obtained an advantage over the French near this town. Thirteen miles E. S. E. of Deux Ponts, and thirtyfive west of Spire. east. PIROMALLI (Paul), a learned dominican of Calabria, who was sent a missionary into the He remained long in Armenia, where he brought back to the Romish faith many schismatics and Eutychians, and finally the patriarch himself, who had before thrown every obstacle in his way. He afterwards went into Georgia and Persia, and into Poland, as Pope Urban VIII.'s nuncio, to appease the disturbances occasioned by the Armenians, whom he reunited to the church. In the course of his return to Italy he was taken by some Corsairs who carried him prisoner to Tunis. As soon as he was ransomed, he went to Rome, and gave an account of his mission to the pope, who conferred -pon him signal marks of his esteem; entrusted him with the revisal of an Armenian Bible, and sent him again into the east where he was promoted, in 1655, to the bishopric of Nassivan. After having governed that church for nine years, he returned to Italy, and took the charge of the church of Basignano, where he died in 1667. His charity, and other virtues, did honor to his character and office. There are extant, of his writings, some Controversial and Theological works; an Armenian and a Persian Dictionary; an Armenian Grammar; and a Directory of great use in correcting Armenian books. PIRON (Alexis) the son of an apothecary, was born at Dijon in 1689, and spent thirty years in dissipation. He was obliged to quit Dijon, on account of an ode he had written, which gave great offence. He supported himself at Paris by the elegance of his hand-writing, and lived in the house of M. de Bellisle, as his secretary, and afterwards with a financier. His reputation as a writer commenced with some pieces which he published, which showed strong marks of original invention; but what fully established his character in this way was his comedy entitled Metromony, which was the best that had appeared in France since Regnard's Gamester. This performance, in five acts, well conducted, replete with genius, wit, and humor, was acted with the greatest success upon the French stage in 1738; and the author met with every attention in the capital which was due to a man of genius. He died the 21st of January 1773, aged eighty-three. A collection of his works appeared in 1776 in 7 vols. 8vo. and 9 vols. 12mo. The principal pieces are, Gustavus and Ferdinand Cortez, two tragedies, and The Courses of Tempe, an ingenious pastoral. See PISA, in ancient geography, a town of Elis, on the Alphæus, at the west end of the Peloponnesus, founded by Pisus. Oenomaus reigned in it, till he was conquered by Pelops. PELOPS. Its inhabitants accompanied Nestor to the Trojan war, and long enjoyed the privilege of presiding at the Olympic games, which were celebrated near Pisa. But this honorable distinction proved at last their destruction. For they were envied for it by the people of Elis, who made war upon them, and after many bloody battles, with various success, at last took their city and totally demolished it. Pisa was famous for its horses; its inhabitants were called Pisæi and Pisates; and a colony of them founded Pisa, now Pisa, in Italy. PISA, a city in the north-west of Italy, and grand duchy of Tuscany, situated on the Arno. It is six miles in circuit and stands on an extensive and richly cultivated plain, bounded by the Appennines on one side, and open on the other to the Mediterranean. The noble river divides the town into two nearly equal parts; the quays, which run along either bank from one extremity to the other, are spacious, and bordered by rows of good houses; the bridges are three in number, and the middle one is built of marble. The streets have raised flags for foot passengers, and are in general broad and well-paved. The cathedral, with its baptistery, cemetery, and belfry, is perhaps the finest specimen that exists of the gothico-moresco style of building. The exterior is covered with marble, diversified with colunins and other remains of antiquity, and surmounted by a handsome dome. The interior is adorned with numerous statues and paintings. The baptistery is of beautiful marble, embellished in the interior with columns and arcades. The Campo Santo, a large oblong building, with elegant gothic windows, encloses a court formerly used as a cemetery, in which is a variety of monuments, sarcophagi, and other Greek and Roman antiquities. But, of all the buildings of Pisa, the most curious is a cylindrical tower of 188 feet in height, constructed of successive rows of pillars, chiefly marble, and remarkable for its inclination of about fifteen feet from the perpendicular. This is ascribed by some writers to design, by others to the sinking of a part of the soil on which the edifice stands; it does not, however, appear in the least to affect the solidity of the building, which has stood for more than six centuries. The city contains several other elegant churches: the square of the university likewise contains several marble buildings; among other public establishments the hospital for 300 patients is worthy of notice. The university is one of the oldest in Italy. Though reduced by the subjugation of Pisa to the Florentines, it was afterwards reinstated, and is still accounted the seat of superior Tuscan education. It has four colleges, with forty professors; a library, botanica garden, cabinet of natural history, and an observatory. Pisa was one of the twelve towns of ancient Etruria, afterwards augmented by a colony from Rome. In the tenth century it took the lead of the commercial republics of Italy, and in the eleventh its fleet maintained a superiority in the Mediterranean, and assisted in the crusades. But in the thirteenth century the ascendancy of Genoa cast Pisa into the shade, and since the beginning of the sixteenth it has been subject to Florence. Its population must at this period evidently have been far beyond its present limit. Its trade has long been very circumscribed, Leghorn absorbing the foreign intercourse: it contains, however, a few manufactures, and the mildness of the climate during winter attracts hither a number of invalids. The baths in the neighbourhood, called the Bagni di Pisa, are also much resorted to. Water is brought to the town by a very long aqueduct. The fortifications consist of a wall and ditch, a castle and a modern citadel. It is the see of an archbishop, and has given birth to Galileo, Algarotti, and various eminent persons. Population 17,000. It stands about eight miles from the mouth of the river, thirteen north by east of Leghorn, and thirty west of Florence. PISE, in ancient geography, a town of Etruria, built by a colony of Pisæi, from Pisa in Peloponnesus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says it was built before the Trojan war, but others say it was built by those Piseans who were shipwrecked on the coast of Italy in their return from it. The people were called Pisani, and were once very powerful. They conquered Sardinia, Corsica, and the Baleares Islands. It is now called Pisa. PISAN (Thomas), a celebrated astrologer of Bologna, who was invited to Venice by Forli, counsellor of that republic, who gave him his daughter in marriage. Charles V. of France invited him to his court, whither he went in 1380, and predicted the day of his death, which, it is said, happened accordingly. PISAN (Christina), daughter of the astrologer, was born in Venice in 1363, and was an accomplished writer. She wrote the Life of King Charles V. of France, and was much patronised by Charles VI. PISAURUM, in ancient geography, a town of Italy, in Picenum. It became a Roman colony, in the consulship of Claudius Pulcher. It is now called Pesaro. It was destroyed by an earthquake, in the beginning of Augustus's reign. PISCATAQUA, a river of New Hampshire, which rises in Wakefield, separates New Hampshire from Maine, and, pursuing a S.S. E. course of about forty miles, flows into the Atlantic, below Portsmouth. From its source to Berwick lower falls it is called Salmon fall river; thence to the junction of the Chocheco it takes the name of Newichawannock, and afterwards that of Piscataqua. By means of the Piscataqua and its tributary waters a sloop navigation is opened to South Berwick, Dover, Newmarket, Durham, and Exeter. Piscataqua harbour, formed by the mouth, is one of the finest on the continent. PISCATAQUIS, a river of Maine, which runs east into the Penobscot, twenty-five miles below the junction of the Metawamkeak. Length 100 miles. PISCATAQUOG, a river of New Hampshire, which rises in Deerfield and Francestown, and runs E. S. E. into the Merrimack, in north-east corner of Bedford. PISCATION, n. s. PIS'CATORY, adj. PISCIV'OROUS. Lat. piscatio, piscatorius, piscis and voro. The act or art of fishing: relating to fishes: living on fish. There are four books of cynegeticks, or venation, five of halieuticks, or piscation, commented by Ritterhusius. Browne. In birds that are not carnivorous, the meat is swallowed into the crop or into a kind of ante-stomach, observed in piscivorous birds, where it is moistened and mollified by some proper juice. Ray. On this monument is represented, in bas-relief, Neptune among the satyrs, to show that this poet was the inventor of piscatory eclogues. Addison. PISCES, Lat. piscis, a fish, is the fourth class of the animal kingdom in the system of Linnæus: the science which treats of the habits and peculiarities of these interesting animals is frequently denominated ichthyology. The great Swedish naturalist includes in this class all those animals who constantly inhabit the water, breathe by means of gills, swim by means of fins, and are mostly covered with cartilaginous scales. The heart has the same structure, and the blood the same qualities, with those of the amphibia; but the animals belonging to this class are easily distinguished from the amphibia by having no such voluntary command of their lungs, and by having external branchiæ or gills. Fishes are ranked by Cuvier amongst the vertebral animals, who breathe by means of branchia or gills, have no trachea or larynx, and whose organs of motion consist of fins. They have a nose unconnected with the organs of respiration; ear entirely enclosed in the head; the tympanum, &c., being absent. Both jaws are moveable. The place of the pancreas is supplied by the pyloric cæca. They have moreover a urinary bladder, two ovaries, and a heart consisting of a single auricle and ventricle. They may be distributed into two leading divisions; the cartilaginous, whose skeleton consists of cartilage; the bony, where it is formed of a more firm substance. To these we shall again advert. Popularly fishes may be considered in respect to their general structure, as distinguished into the Compressed, when the diameter from side to side is less than from back to belly: Depressed, when the diameter from side to side is greater than from back to belly: Oblong, when the longitudinal exceeds the transverse diameter; Oval, when the base is likewise circular; Orbicular, when the longitudinal and transverse diameters are nearly equal; Gibbous, when the back presents one or more protuberances; carinate, ensiform, cuneiform, wedgeshaped, &c. The surface of the body is termed naked when destitute of scales; scaly when furnished with them; smooth when the scales are without angles, &c.; lubricous when provided with a mucus; tuberculate, &c.; loricate, or mailed, when enclosed in a hard integument; fasciate or banded when marked with zones from the |