Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/68

 60 PSYCHOLOGY PTAKMIGAN of whom the youngest, named Psyche, was a marvel of beauty, and altars were consecrated to her that properly belonged to Venus. The anger of that goddess was excited, and she commanded her son Cupid to inspire Psyche with a passion for some frightful monster ; but he himself fell in love with her, and bore her away to a delightful place, where she was vis- ited every night by the young god, who left her at dawn. Her sisters persuaded her that he who came to her every night, and whom she had never seen, must be a loathsome creature, and urged her to destroy him while he slept ; but when she brought a lamp and beheld his beauty, her joy deprived her of the power of motion, and while she stood a drop of hot oil falling from her lamp upon his shoulder awoke him. "With a few words of reproach he fled. Psycho now endeavored to destroy herself, but nothing in nature would injure her. At length she came to the temple of Venus, who made her a slave. Cupid finally delivered her, and, being now sufficiently purified through suffer- ing, she was united to her beloved by Jupiter himself. In works of art Psyche is represent- ed with the wings of a butterfly. PSYCHOLOGY. See PHILOSOPHY. PT1H, or Phthfth, one of the principal divini- ties of ancient Egypt. lie was believed to be the author of everything visible, the father of the god of the sun, and the ruler of light and fire. His seat of adoration was at Memphis, and his temple, said to have been founded by Menes, was one of the largest and most magnificent in Lower Egypt. At Hermopolis Magna were worshipped eight children of Ptah, representing the elements, and the immediate rulers of the world. Ptah's symbol was the scardbceui sacer, which insect was supposed to multiply without bearing, and many monu- ments depict Ptah with this animal instead of a head upon the shoulders. lie is sometimes represented in the diminutive form of a child or a dwarf, presumably as suggestive of his being the god of the beginning, and occasion- ally also in the swaddlings of a mummy, which was probably intended to suggest his attribute of immutability. The Greeks compared him to their god Ilephaostus. (See VULCAN.) PTARMIGAN, the popular name of the galli- naceous birds of the grouse family embraced in the genus lagopus (Briss.), which differ from the ordinary grouse in having the legs feath- ered to the claws, giving somewhat the appear- ance of a hare's foot (whence the generic name, Gr. Aayuf, a hare, and n-otif, foot), in the trun- cated tail about two thirds as long as the wings and of 16 to 18 feathers, in most of the species becoming white in winter, and in the nasal groove being densely clothed with feathers; the family characters have been given under GROUSE. There are six or eight species de- scribed, inhabiting the northern and snow-cov- ered regions of both hemispheres, being one of the few genera characteristic of the arctic fauna ; they are as much at home in snow as are the web-footed birds in water, and their plumed feet enable them to run over its sur- face without sinking. They live in families during most of the year, and are monogamous ; the females incubate, but the males assist in rearing and feeding the young ; the males have a loud harsh cry, and the females cackle like a hen. They are rapid fliers, without making a whirring noise, and swift runners ; they feed upon berries, buds, mosses and lichens, and even insects; their flesh is good, and their pursuit affords an exciting sport ; they are very shy, but when started are easily shot on ac- count of their regular flight. The summer plumage is varied with brown, black, and gray, most of the wing remaining white ; in the males the mottling is finer and the colors brighter. It is very difficult to ascertain the exact num- ber of species, from the rarity of specimens in summer plumage, and the absence of accurate determination of sex. There are three well ascertained species in America. The white ptarmigan or willow grouse (L. allu, Aud.) is Willow Grouse (Lagopus albas). about 15| in. long and 24^ in. in alar extent; the bill is black, very stout and convex, and broad at tip; the general plumage in summer is rufous or orange chestnut on the head and neck; feathers of back black, closely barred with yellowish brown and chestnut; most of wings and lower parts white; tail brownish black; in winter white, with black tail; no black stripes through the eye. It occurs in the northern parts of America, and is common in eastern Labrador, Newfoundland, and the Northwest territories, and in rare instances in the northern United States ; it is found in open rocky grounds and among dwarf willows and birches. In winter they scratch in the snow down to the mosses and lichens on which they feed, collecting often in considerable flocks. In winter the flesh is dry, but is tender and haa an agreeable aromatic flavor in summer. Thej" breed in Labrador about the beginning of June, placing the nest under the creeping branches of low firs; the eggs are from 6 to 14, of a fawn color or rufous ground with irregular