notion it conveys is erroneous. Among English writers the name "Trumpeter" was carried on by Latham and others so as to be generally accepted, though an author may occasionally be found willing to resort to the native "Agami," which is that almost always used by the French.
Messrs Sclater and Salvin in their Nomenclator (p. 141) admit 6 species of Trumpet-Birds (1) the original Psophia crepitans of Guiana; (2) P. napcnsis of eastern Ecuador (which is very likely the original "Oiseau trompette" of De la Condamine); (3) P. ochroptera from the right bank of the Rio Negro; (4) P. leucoptera from the right bank of the upper Amazons; (5) P. viridis from the right bank of the Madeira; and (6) P. obscura from the right bank of the lower Amazons near Para. And they have remarked in the Zoological Proceedings (1867, p. 592) on the curious fact that the range of the several species appears to be separated by rivers, a statement confirmed by Mr Wallace (Geogr. Ihstr. Animals, ii. p. 358); and in connexion therewith it may be observed that these birds have short wings and seldom fly, but run, though with a peculiar gait, very quickly. A seventh species, P. caniatrix, from Bolivia, has since been indicated by Prof. W. Blasius (Journ. f. Ornith., 1884, pp. 203-210), who has given a monographic summary of the whole group very worthy of attention. The chief distinctions between the species lie in colour and size, and it will be here enough to describe briefly the best known of them, P. crepitans. This is about the size of a large barndoor Fowl; but its neck and legs are longer, so that it is a taller bird. The head and neck are clothed with short velvety feathers; the whole plumage is black, except that on the lower front of the neck the feathers are tipped with golden green, changing according to the light into violet, and that a patch of dull rusty brown extends across the middle of the back and wing-coverts, passing into ash-colour lower down, where they hang over and conceal the tail. The legs are bright pea-green. The habits of this bird are very wonderful, and it is much to be wished that fuller accounts of them had appeared. The curious sound it utters, noticed by the earliest observers, has been already mentioned, and by them also was its singularly social disposition towards man described; but the information supplied to Buffon (Oiseaux, iv. pp. 496-501) by Manoncour and De la Borde, which has been repeated in many works, is still the best we have of the curious way in which it becomes semi-domesticated by the Indians and colonists and shows strong affection for its owners as well as for their living property—poultry or sheep—though in this reclaimed condition it seems never to breed.[1] Indeed nothing can be positively asserted as to its mode of nidification; but its eggs, according to Mr E. Bartlett, are of a creamy white, rather round, and about the size of Bantams. Waterton in his Wanderings (Second Journey, chap. iii. ) speaks of falling in with flocks of 200 or 300 "Waracabas," as he called them, in Demerara, but added nothing to our knowledge of the species; while the contributions of Trail (Mem. Wcm. Society, v. pp. 523-532) and Dr Hancock (Mag. Nat. History, ser. 2, ii. pp. 490-492) as regards its habits only touch upon them in captivity.
To the Trumpeters must undoubtedly be accorded the rank of a distinct Family, Psophiidx; but like so many other South-American birds they seem to be the less specialized descendants of an ancient generalized group perhaps the common ancestors of the Rallidse and Gruidee and they are therefore rightly placed in Prof. Huxley's Geranomorpka?.[2] The structure of the syrinx is stated by Trail (ut supra] to be quite unique; but his description of it is unsatisfactory, and he clearly had not an adult male to dissect or lie would have hardly failed to notice the curious arrangement of the trachea in that sex made known by Hancock (ut supra}. This, though different from that described in any Crane (q.v.) sug gests an early form of the structure which in some of the Gruidx is so marvellously developed, for in Psophia the windpipe runs down the breast and belly immediately tinder the skin to within about an inch of the anus, whence it returns in a similar way to the front of the sternum, and then enters the thorax. Analogous instances of this forma tion occur in several other groups of birds not at all allied to the Psophiidx. The skeleton and some of the detached bones are figured in Eyton's Osteol. Avium (pis. xxix. and 5 K). (a. n.)
TRURO, a city, municipal borough, and port of Cornwall, England, is situated on a kind of peninsula formed by the rivers Allen and Kenwyn, which below the town unite with a branch of Falmouth harbour called Truro creek or river. Truro is 300 miles south-west of London by the Great Western Railway, and 11 north of Falmouth, to which there is a branch line. The town is regularly built, chiefly of granite, with spacious streets, through the principal of which there flows a stream of water. The new cathedral of St Mary by Mr Pearson, R.A., one of the most important modern ecclesiastical buildings in England, is a fine example of Early English at its best period. The old south aisle of the church previously existing is ingeniously incorporated in the new edifice. The secular buildings include the town-hall and market-house in the Italian style (1846), the corn exchange, the theatre, the public rooms, the music-hall, and the county library (1792). There is also a theological library, presented by Bishop Phillpotts in 1856 and largely augmented by a bequest of books in 1883. Among the educational and benevolent institutions are the grammar-school (founded by a member of the Borlase family, and having two exhibitions at Exeter College, Oxford), the cathedral divinity schools, the Wesleyan middle schools, the literary institution, the royal Cornwall infirmary, the dispensary, and a hospital for ten widows. There is sufficient depth of water in the channel of Truro creek to permit vessels of 70 tons burden to come up to the town quay. The principal imports are coal from Wales and timber from Norway, and the exports consist of tin, iron ores, lead, and zinc, from the mines in the neighbour hood. The population of the municipal borough (area 1171 acres) in 1871 was 11,049, and 10,619 in 1881.
Truro is one of the oldest towns in England. It is the seat of the stannary and other courts connected with the duchy of Corn wall (see CORNWALL, vol. vi. p. 427). It was one of the ancient privileged tin coinage towns. Anciently it was called Tueura, Treura, and Truruburgh. It was a borough by prescription, but was incorporated by Reginald, earl of Cornwall. In the 12th century it belonged to Richard de Lucy. In a charter of Henry VII. it is called the "ville de Teuro." The government was vested in a mayor and burgesses by Elizabeth, who gave the corporation juris diction over the port of Falmouth, the port dues of that town being collected by them until its incorporation by Charles II. Norden, writing of Truro in 1574, says, "there is not a towne in the west part of the shire more commendable for neatness of buyldinges, nor more discommendable for the pride of the people." "in 1642 Sir Ralph Hopton levied here a large body of men for the king. By the Municipal Act Truro was divided into two wards, and is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. The corporation act as the urban sanitary authority. Truro sent two representatives to parliament from the 23d year of Edward I., but ceased to be separately represented in 1885. By Act 39 and 40 Viet, c. 54 it was constituted the head of a new diocese comprising the archdeaconry of Cornwall.
- ↑ In connexion herewith may be mentioned the singular story told by Montagu (Orn. Diet., Suppl. Art. "Grosbeak, White-winged "), on the authority of the then Lord Stanley, afterwards president of the Zoological Society, of one of these birds, which, having apparently escaped from confinement, formed the habit of attending a poultry-yard. On the occasion of a pack of hounds running through the yard, the Trumpeter joined and kept up with them for nearly three miles!
- ↑ Cf. Parker, Trans. Zool. Soc., x. p. 502 sq.
