Perceval Hero of Arthurian legend. His childlike innocence protected him from worldly temptation. In Chretien de Troyes’s 12th-century Le Conte du Graal, Perceval visits the castle of the wounded Fisher King and sees the Grail, but he fails to ask about it and therefore fails to heal the Fisher King. He subsequently sets out in search of the Grail and grows spiritually. In later Grail legend he was displaced by Galahad as the hero of the Grail quest but continued to play an important role. His story was told in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s 13th-century Parzifal, which provided the basis for Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal (1882).
Perceval Vpar-ss-volX, Spencer (b. Nov. 1, 1762, London, Eng.—d. May 11, 1812, London) British prime minister (1809-12). He entered Parliament in 1796 and supported William Pitt’s policy of war with France. He served as attorney general (1802-06) and as chancellor of the Exche¬ quer (1807-09). As premier from 1809, he was noted as an efficient administrator but also for his opposition to religious tolerance. He was assassinated by a deranged man who had applied to him for redress of a complaint against the government.
perch Either of two species (family Percidae, order Perciformes) of popu¬ lar food and sport fishes: the Eurasian common perch {Perea fluviatilis) or the North American yellow perch (P flavescens). Some consider the two a single species. Both have one spiny and one soft-rayed dorsal fin. Perches are carnivores of quiet ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers. The common perch is greenish, with dark vertical bars on the sides and reddish in the lower fins. It grows to 6 lbs (3 kg), rarely more. The yellow perch, similar but yellower, grows to about 15 in. (40 cm) and weighs up to 2 lbs (1 kg); it is a popular game fish. See also sauger, sea bass, walleye.
Percheron Vpor-cho-.ranN Heavy breed of draft horse that originated in France’s Perche region. The breed probably stems from the medieval Flemish “great horse,” which was modified by Oriental and draft-type blood to produce animals for heavy farm work. Percherons became popu¬ lar in the U.S. in the 1850s and influenced U.S. agriculture more than any other draft breed. They average 16-17 hands (64-68 in. [163-173 cm]) high and weigh 1,900-2,100 lb (860-950 kg). Common colours are black and gray. Agile and energetic for their size, they have a mild disposition.
percussion instrument A musical instrument that is struck (or some¬ times shaken or scraped) to produce sound. This category includes instru¬ ments whose own hard substance is made to vibrate (idiophones) and instruments that include a tight membrane that vibrates (membrano- phones). Percussion instruments may produce tones of definite or indefi¬ nite pitch. Their primary function is often rhythmic, but many are used as melody instruments. They include the bell, carillon, cymbal, drum, dul¬ cimer, GAMELAN, GLOCKENSPIEL, MARIMBA, PIANO, STEEL DRUM, TABLA, TAMBOURINE, TIMPANI, VIBRAPHONE, and XYLOPHONE.
Percy, John (b. March 23, 1817, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Eng.—d. June 19, 1889, London) British metallurgist. He turned to met¬ allurgy after obtaining a medical degree, and in 1848 he devised a pro¬ cess for extracting silver from its ores, which soon came into widespread use. He improved the Bessemer process for making steel, and he was the first to survey British iron ores. At London’s Metropolitan School of Sci¬ ences, he trained a generation of metallurgists. His multi volume Treatise on Metallurgy (1861-80), though unfinished, quickly attained classic sta¬ tus.
Percy, Walker (b. May 28, 1916, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.—d. May 10, 1990, Covington, La.) U.S. novelist. He was orphaned in late child¬ hood and was raised by a cousin in Mississippi. While working as a pathologist he contracted tuberculosis; during his recuperation he decided on a writing career and converted to Roman Catholicism. His first and best-known novel, The Moviegoer (1961), introduced his concept of mal¬ aise, a sense of spiritual emptiness characteristic of the rootless modern world. His other works, often about the search for faith and love in a New South transformed by industry and technology, include Love in the Ruins (1971), The Second Coming (1980), and The Thanatos Syndrome (1987).
Samuel Pepys, oil painting by John Hayls, 1666; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1472 I peregrine falcon ► performance art
peregrine falcon Vper-o-groM or duck hawk Falcon species (Falco peregrinus) found worldwide but rare today because of bioaccumu¬ lation of pesticides. Peregrines are 13-19 in. (33-48 cm) long and gray above, with black-barred whitish underparts. They fly high and dive at tremendous speed (up to 175 mph, or 280 kph—the greatest speeds attained by any bird), striking with clenched talons and killing by impact. They usually nest in a scrape on a high cliff ledge near water, where bird prey is plentiful. Breeding programs have reintroduced the spe¬ cies into the wild and introduced it into urban areas, where it finds a cliff¬ like habitat among skyscrapers and preys chiefly on the rock dove (see pigeon). Despite the programs’ suc¬ cess, the species remains vulnerable.
Pereira \p9-'ra-ra\ City (pop., 1999 est.: 381,725), west-central Colom¬ bia. It is in the western foothills of the Cordillera Central of the Andes Mountains above the Cauca River valley. Founded in 1863 on the former site of Cartago, it is a centre for coffee production and cattle raising and has some light manufacturing.
Perelman Vper-ol-monV S(idney) J(oseph) (b. Feb. 1,1904, Brook¬ lyn, N.Y., U.S.—d. Oct. 17, 1979, New York, N.Y.) U.S. humorist. Per¬ elman attended Brown University and soon began writing screenplays for early Marx Brothers films such as Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). A master of wordplay, he regularly contributed essays to The New Yorker, many were collected in books such as Westward Ha! (1948) and The Road to Miltown (1957). He collaborated with Kurt Weill on the musical One Touch of Venus (1943). His later screenplays include Around the World in 80 Days (1956, Academy Award).
perennial Any plant that persists for several years, usually with new herbaceous growth from a part that survives from season to season. Trees and shrubs are perennial, as are some herbaceous flowers and vegetative ground covers. Perennials have only a limited flowering period, but with maintenance throughout the growing season, they provide a leafy pres¬ ence and shape to the garden landscape. Popular flowering perennials include bellflowers, chrysanthemums, columbines, lockspurs, hollyhocks, phlox, pinks, poppies, and primroses. See also annual, biennial.
Peres \'per-es\, Shimon orig. Shimon Perski (b. Aug. 16, 1923, Wotozyn, Pol.) Polish-born Israeli statesman. He immigrated to Palestine _ with his family in 1934 and joined the Haganah organization in 1947. After
Israel achieved independence, he held a number of positions in the defense jm establishment (1948-65). In 1968 he helped establish the Israel Labour
M Party. The indecisive 1984 election led to a power-sharing arrangement
with Likud candidate Yitzhak Shamir, the two men alternating as prime min¬ ister. During Peres’s tenure (1984-86), Israel withdrew from most of Leba- 9 non. He was foreign minister under Yitzhak Rabin (1992-95); Peres, Rabin,
and Palestinian leader Yasir ‘Arafat shared the 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace. Peres became prime minister again upon Rabin’s assassination in 1995 but was narrowly defeated in his bid for reelection by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996. Although Peres declined to seek reelection as leader of the Labour Party in 1997, he later served as foreign minister (2001-02), deputy prime minister (2001-02), and vice prime minister (2005) in the national unity government led by Likud’s Ariel Sharon. In 2003 Peres resumed the chair of the Labour Party but was unexpectedly defeated in the party’s leadership election in 2005. He subsequently left the Labour Party.