pintail Any of four species (genus Anas, family Anatidae) of sleek, long-tailed, long-necked dabbling ducks that are swift fliers and popular game birds. The common, or northern, pintail (A. acuta), widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, is a long-distance flier; some Alaskan birds winter in Hawaii. It is 26-30 in. (66-75 cm) long. The male has a white breast, gray back, and black tail; the female is mottled brown. The pre¬ ferred diet is seeds. The brown, or yellow-billed, and the Bahama, or white-cheeked, pintails are primarily found in South America. The red¬ billed pintail is a grayish African species.
Pinter, Harold (b. Oct. 10, 1930, London, Eng.) British playwright. Born into a working-class family, he acted with touring companies until 1959. His early one-act plays were followed by the full-length The Birth¬ day Party (1958). His next major plays. The Caretaker (1960) and The Homecoming (1965), established his reputation as an innovative and com¬ plex dramatist, sometimes considered as belonging to the Theatre of the Absurd. He often used disjointed small talk and lengthy pauses in dialogue to convey a character’s thought, which often contradicts his speech. Pint¬ er’s laterplays include Old Times (1971), No Man's Land (1975), Betrayal (1978; film, 1983), Mountain Language (1988), and Moonlight (1993). He also wrote radio and television plays as well as screenplays for The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), and The Handmaid’s Tale (1990). In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
pinto Spotted horse, also called paint, piebald, skewbald, and other terms to describe variations in colour and markings. The American Indian ponies of the western U.S. were often pintos. Most pure-breed associations refuse to register horses with pinto colouring. Pintos have colour patterns called overo (white spreading irregularly up from the belly, mixed with a darker colour) and tobiano (white spreading down from the back in smooth, clean-cut patterns).
Pinturicchio V.pen-tii-'rek-kyoN or Pintoricchio \,pen-t6-'rek-kyo\ orig. Bernardino di Betto di Biago (b. c. 1454, Perugia, Romagna—d. Dec. 11, 1513, Siena, Republic of Siena) Italian painter. He assisted Perugino on the frescoes in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel (1481-82). Painting in the early Renaissance style, he was more interested in deco¬ rative effects than in clarity of design; his most important work, the fresco decoration of six rooms in the Bor¬ gia Apartments for Pope Alexander VI (1492-94), features brilliant colours, gilding, and ancient Roman ornamental motifs. His last major works were 10 scenes from the life of Pius II in the Piccolomini Library of Siena Cathedral. He was also a prolific panel painter.
pinworm Common species (Enterobius vermicularis) of NEMA¬ TODE parasitic to humans, especially children. Female pinworms may be 0.5 in. (13 mm) long; males are much smaller. Pinworms have a very long tail that gives them a pinlike appearance. They mate in the upper gastrointestinal tract, usually in the
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Pio ► piranha I 1503
large intestine; the females travel to the anus, deposit their fertilized eggs on the skin near the anal opening, and die. The worms’ movements cause itching; eggs transferred to the fingernails when the victim scratches may be passed to the mouth. Eggs can also be inhaled with air dust. The eggs or larvae make their way to the intestine, and the cycle begins again.
Pio, Padre orig. Francesco Forgione (b. May 25,1887, Pietreclina, Italy—d. Sept. 23, 1968, San Giovanni Rotondo) Italian priest. Born into a devout Catholic family, he consecrated himself to Jesus at 5. At 15 he joined the Capuchins and took the name Pio; in 1910 he became a priest. That same year he received the stigmata for the first time. They were healed, but he received them again in 1918; this time they remained with him until his death. This and other signs of his holiness (perfume and, reportedly, the ability to be in two places at once), drew growing num¬ bers of pilgrims to him. He was canonized in 2002.
Piombo, Sebastiano del See Sebastiano del Piombo
Pioneer First series of unmanned U.S. deep-space probes. Pioneers 0-4 were all intended to be lunar missions, but only Pioneer 4 succeeded in escaping Earth’s gravity (1964). Pioneer 1 was the first spacecraft launched by NASA (1958). Pioneers 6-9 were successfully launched into solar orbits (1965-68) to study the solar wind, solar magnetic field, and cosmic rays. Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, was the first space probe to traverse the asteroid belt and the first to fly by Jupiter (1973), where it discovered Jupi¬ ter’ s huge magnetic tail. It then became the first man-made object to exit the solar system. Pioneer ll’s data and photographs (1979) enabled scientists to identify two previously undiscovered moons and an additional ring around Saturn and radiation belts in its magnetosphere. Two Pioneer Venus spacecraft, the Orbiter and the Multiprobe (Pioneer 12 and 13, respec¬ tively), reached Venus in 1978. The Orbiter observed the planet’s clouds and atmosphere and mapped its surface by radar; the Multiprobe released four instrument packages into the atmosphere at different locations.
pipa Vpe-'pa\ or p'i-p'a Short-necked Chinese lute. It has a pear- shaped body and a fretted fingerboard, and the silk strings are plucked with the fingernails. It is prominent in the opera orchestra and as an ensemble, solo, and accompanying instrument. The Japanese biwa is a similar instrument.
pipe, sacred See calumet
Pipestone National Monument National monument, southwest¬ ern Minnesota, U.S. Established in 1937, it has an area of 282 acres (114 hectares) and contains quarries of a reddish-coloured stone that was used by the Plains Indians to make ceremonial peace pipes. The stone is reserved for use by the Indians, who quarry it under special permits from the National Park Service. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow popularized the quarries in “The Song of Hiawatha.”
pipit or fieldlark Any of about 50 species (especially in the genus Anthus ) of small, slender-bodied, ground-dwelling songbirds belonging to the family Motacillidae. Found worldwide except in polar regions and on some islands, they are brownish-streaked and 5-9 in. (12-23 cm) long. They have a thin, pointed bill, pointed wings, and elongated hind toes and claws. Named for their twittering sounds, they walk and run rapidly (but never hop), searching the ground for insects. Their flight is strongly undu¬ lating. Their white outer tail feathers show best in flight. See also wagtail.
Pippin \'pe-pon\ III or Pepin or Pippin the Short (b. c. 714—d.
Sept. 24, 768, Saint-Denix, Neustria) King of the Franks (751-768), the first king of the Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne. A son of Charles Martel, he became mayor of Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence in 741 and de facto ruler of the Franks when his brother entered a mon¬ astery in 747. With the backing of the pope, he deposed the last Merov¬ ingian ruler, Childeric III, in 751 and was crowned king by the bishops of his realm and, possibly, by the papal legate St. Boniface. Pippin was crowned king in 754 by Pope Stephen II. The king bestowed on the pope the Donation of Pippin and invaded Italy twice (754, 756) to protect the pope from the Lombards. He also put down revolts in Saxony and Bavaria and struggled to subdue rebellious Aquitaine. Pippin called several church councils and promoted religious reform in the kingdom.
Pippin, Horace (b. Feb. 22, 1888, West Chester, Pa., U.S.—d. July 6, 1946, West Chester) U.S. folk painter. Pippin served in the infantry in World War I, but he was wounded in 1918 and discharged with a partially paralyzed right arm. His first large canvas was an eloquent protest against war, End of the War: Starting Home (1931-34). His primary theme