plumage. The golden pheasant of China and Tibet is striking, being mostly golden above and scarlet below, with a ruff of orange and black. The silver pheasant is silvery white above, penciled with black. Both birds have been introduced into Europe and America. The tail sometimes is very long; for example, in Reeve's pheasant of China it is five and one half feet. The ruffed grouse of North America is incorrectly called pheasant; being given this name in the south and in the north being called partridge. Our only native representative of the pheasant family is the wild turkey, once so generally abundant in the United States; but the introduction of foreign species has met with marked success. The ring-tailed pheasant is a beautiful and valuable game-bird. In introducing and rearing this bird the eastern and middle states have taken part, following the example of the Pacific coast.
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart (Mrs. Herbert D. Ward), an American author, was born at Andover, Mass., Aug. 31, 1844, her father being Professor Austin Phelps of Andover Theological Seminary and her mother the daughter of Professor Moses Stuart of the same institution. Besides lecturing, writing for magazines and engaging in various kinds of work for the advancement of women, she wrote a number of novels, including Gates Ajar (which passed through several editions in the year of its publication), Beyond the Gates, Hedged In, The Silent Partner and Doctor Zay (in which the question of professional life for women is considered). In 1888 she married and in connection with her husband published The Master of the Magicians and other works. Died Jan. 28, 1911.
Phi Beta Kappa, a collegiate Greek-letter fraternity composed of the first third of the senior class in American colleges. This society was founded in 1776 in Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburgh, Virginia, by 44 undergraduates of William and Mary College, of whom John Marshall, afterward chief-justice of the United States, was one. Branches were established at Yale (1780) and Harvard (1781), and since then chapters have been formed in many universities and colleges, with an active membership in 1907 of close upon 13,000. Vassar was the first woman's college to receive a charter.
Phidias (fid′i-as) or Pheidias, the greatest sculptor of ancient Greece, was born about 500 B. C. To Phidias came such an opportunity as comes only to few artists. Pericles, having risen to the head of affairs, resolved to adorn Athens with public buildings, and he therefore not only gave Phidias a commission to execute the more splendid statues to be erected, but made him superintendent of all public works planned. He constructed the Propylæa and the Parthenon, the sculptured ornaments of which were executed under his direct superintendence, while the statue of Athené, in ivory and gold, was the work of Phidias himself. He also executed a colossal gold and ivory statue of Zeus for the Olympian temple in Elis; this is considered his masterpiece. In his later years Phidias was accused of appropriating a portion of the gold designed for the robe of Athené and of impiety in having placed his own likeness and that of Pericles upon the shield of the goddess, and was thrown into prison, where he died about 430 B. C.
Philadelphia, Pa., the chief city and seaport of Pennsylvania and the third city in population in the United States, is situated on the west bank of Delaware River at the mouth of Schuylkill River, 135 miles northeast of Washington and 88 southwest of New York.
The city is coextensive with the county, its greatest length being about twenty miles and its breadth from five to ten. Among the most noted buildings are Independence Hall or old State House, occupied by the Continental congress in 1776, the United States mint and custom-house, the post-office, the Masonic Temple which cost over $1,500,000, Girard College, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania. The city hall, begun in 1871 and completed in 1895, is of Massachusetts marble. It covers more than four acres, has 520 rooms, and is the largest city building in the world. The dome and tower, 537½ feet high, is surmounted by a statue of Penn 36 feet in height. Not far from $20,000,000 have been expended on it. Fairmount Park, in which was held the Centennial Exposition of 1876, con-
