dentition, of jaws as well as pharynx. The teeth of the jaws arc soldered together, and form a sharp-edged beak similar to that of a parrot, but without a middle projecting point, and the upper and lower beak are divided into two lateral halves by a median suture. In a few species the single teeth can be still distinguished, but in the majority (Pseudoscarus) they are united into a homogeneous substance with polished surface. By this sharp and hard beak parrot-fishes are enabled to bite or scrape oil those parts of coral-stocks which contain the polypes or to cut off branches of tough fucus, which in some of the species forms the principal portion of their diet. The process of triturating the food is performed by the pharyngeal teeth, which likewise are united, and form plates with broad masticatory surfaces, not unhke the grinding surface of the molars of the elephant. Of these plates there is one pair above, opposed to and fitting into the single one which is coalesced to the lower pharyngeal bone. The contents of the alimentary canal, which are always found to be finely divided and reduced to a pulp, prove the efficiency of this triturating apparatus; in fact, ever since the time of Aristotle it has been maintained that the Scarus ruminates. Nearly one hundred species of parrot-fishes are known from the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Oceans; like other coral-feeding fishes, they are absent on the Pacific coasts of tropical America and on the coast of tropical West Africa. The most celebrated is the Scarus of the Mediterranean. Beautiful colours prevail in this group of wrasses, but are subject to great changes and variations in the same species; almost all are evanescent and cannot be preserved after death. The majority of parrot-fishes are eatable, some even esteemed; but they (especially the carnivorous kinds) not infrequently acquire poisonous properties after they have fed on corals or medusae containing an acrid poison. Many attain to a considerable size, upwards of 3 ft. in length.
PARRY, SIR CHARLES HUBERT HASTINGS, Bart., English musical composer (1848–), second son of Thomas Gambler Parry, of Highnam Court, Gloucester, was born at Bournemouth on the 27 th of February 1848. He was educated at Malvern, Twyford, near Winchester, Eton (from 1861), and Exeter College, Oxford. While still at Eton he wrote music, two anthems being published in 1865; a service in D was dedicated to Sir John Stainer. He took the degree of Mus. B.
at Oxford at the age of eighteen, and that of B.A. in 1870;
he then left Oxford for London, where in the following year he
entered Lloyd's, abandoning business for art soon afterwards.
He studied successively with H. H. Pierson (at Stuttgart),
Sterndale Bennett and Macfarren; but the most important
part of his artistic development was due to Edward Dannreuther.
Among the larger works of this early period must be mentioned
an overture, Guillem de Cabestanh (Crystal Palace, 1879), a
pianoforte concerto in F sharp minor, played by Dannreuther
at the Crystal Palace and Richter concerts in 1880, and his
first choral work, the Scenes from Prometheus Unbound, produced
at the Gloucester Festival, 1880. These, like a symphony in
G given at the Birmingham Festival of 1882, seemed strange
even to educated hearers, who were confused by the intricacy
of treatment. It was not until his setting of Shirley's ode,
The Glories of our Blood and State, was brought out at Gloucester,
1883, and the Partita for violin and pianoforte was published
about the same time, that Parry's importance came to be realized.
With his sublime eight-part setting of Milton's Blest Pair of
Sirens (Bach Choir, 1887) began a fine series of compositions
to sacred or semi-sacred words. In Judith (Birmingham, 1888),
the Ode on St Cecilia's Day (Leeds, 1889), L' Allegro ed il penseroso
(Norwich, 1890), De Profundis (Hereford, 1891), The Lotus
Eaters (Cambridge, 1892), Job (Gloucester, 1892), King Saul
(Birmingham, 1894), Invocation to Music (Leeds, 1895), Magnificat
(Hereford, 1897), A Song of Darkness and Light (Gloucester,
1898), and Te Deum (Hereford, 1900), are revealed the highest
qualities of music. Skill in piling up climax after climax,
and command of every choral resource, are the technical qualities
most prominent in these works; but in his orchestral compositions,
such as the three later symphonies, in F, C and E minor,
in two suites, one for strings alone, and above all in his Symphonic
Variations (1897), he shows himself a master of the orchestra,
and his experiments in modification of the conventional classical
forms, such as appear in the work last named, or in the Nineteen
Variations for Pianoforte Solo, are always successful. His
music to The Birds of Aristophanes (Cambridge, 1883) and
The Frogs (Oxford, 1892) are striking examples of humour
in music; and that to Agamemnon (Cambridge, 1900) is among the
most impressive compositions of the kind. His chamber music,
exquisite part-songs and solo songs maintain the high standard
of his greater works. At the opening of the Royal College of
Music in 1883 he was appointed professor of composition and of
musical history, and in 1894, on the retirement of Sir George
Grove, Parry succeeded him as principal. He was appointed
Choragus of Oxford University in 1883, succeeding Stainer in
the professorship of the university in 1900. He received the
honorary degree of Mus. D. at Cambridge 1883, Oxford 1884,
Dublin 1891; and was knighted in 1898. Outside the domain
of creative music. Parry's work for music was of the greatest
importance: as a contributor of many of the most important
articles on musical forms, &c., in Grove's dictionary, his literary
work first attracted attention; in his Studies of Great Composers
musical biography was treated, almost for the first time, in a
really enlightened and enlightening way; and his Art of Music
is a splendid monument of musical literature, in which the
theory of evolution is applied to musical history with wonderful
skill and success.
PARRY, SIR WILLIAM EDWARD (1790–1855), English
rear-admiral and Arctic explorer, was born in Bath on the 19th of December 1790, the son of a doctor. At the age of thirteen he joined the flag-ship of Admiral Cornwallis in the Channel fleet as a first-class volunteer, in 1806 became a midshipman, and in 1810 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the " Alexander " frigate, which was employed for the next three
years in the protection of the Spitzbergen whale fishery. He
took advantage of this opportunity for the study and practice
of astronomical observations in northern latitudes, and afterwards
published the results of his studies in a small volume on
Nautical Astronomy by Night (1816). From 1813–1817 he served
on the North American station. In 1818 he was given the
command of the " Alexander " brig in the Arctic expedition
under Captain (afterwards Sir) John Ross. This expedition
returned to England without having made any new discoveries
but Parry, confident, as he expressed it, " that attempts at
Polar discovery had been hitherto relinquished just at a time
when there was the greatest chance of succeeding," in the
following year obtained the chief command of a new Arctic
expedition, consisting of the two ships " Griper " and " Hecla."
This expedition returned to England in November 1820 after
a voyage of almost unprecedented Arctic success (see Polar
Regions), having accomplished more than half the journey
from Greenland to Bering Strait, the completion of which solved the ancient problem of a North-west Passage. A narrative of the expedition, entitled Journal of a Voyage to discover a North-west Passage, appeared in 1821. Upon his return Lieutenant Parry was promoted to the rank of commander. In May 1821 he set sail with the " Fury " and " Hecla " on a second expedition to discover a North-west Passage, but was compelled to return to England in October 1823 without achieving his purpose. During his absence he had in November 1821 been promoted to post rank, and shortly after his return he was appointed acting hydrographer to the navy. His Journal of a Second Voyage, &c., appeared in 1824. With the same ships he undertook a third expedition on the same quest in 1824, but was again unsuccessful, and the " Fury " being wrecked, he returned home in October 1825 with a double ship's company. Of this voyage he published an account in 1826. In the following year he obtained the sanction of the Admiralty for an attempt on the North Pole from the northern shores of Spitzbergen, and his extreme point of 82° 45' N. lat. remained for 49 years the highest latitude attained. He published an account of this journey under the title of Narrative of the Attempt to reach the
