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TRUMPETER

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 328 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TRUMPETER , or See also:

TRUMPET-See also:BIRD, the literal rendering in 1747, by the See also:anonymous See also:English translator of De la Condamine's travels in See also:South See also:America (p. 87), of that writer's " Oiseau trompette " (Mem. de l'Acad. See also:des Sciences, 1745, p. 473), a bird, which he says was called " Trompetero " by the Spaniards of Maynas on the upper See also:Amazons, from the See also:peculiar See also:sound it utters. He added that it was the "Agami " of the inhabitants of See also:Para and See also:Cayenne,' wherein he was not wholly accurate, since those (After See also:Mitchell.) See also:White-winged Trumpeter (Psophia leucoptera). birds are specifically distinct, though, as they are generically See also:united, the statement may pass. But he was also wrong, as had been P. Barrere (See also:France equinoxiale, p. 132) in 1741, in identifying the " Agami " with the " Macucagua " of Marcgrav, for that is a See also:Tinamou (q.v.); and both still more wrongly accounted for the origin of the peculiar sound just mentioned, whereby Barrere was soon after led (Ornith. Spec. Novum, pp. 62, 63) to apply to the bird the generic and vulgar names of Psophia and " Petteuse," the former of which, being unfortunately adopted by See also:Linnaeus, has ever since been used, though in 1766 and 1767 See also:Pallas (Miscellanea, p. 67, and Spicilegia, iv.

6), and in 1768 See also:

Vosmaer (Descr. du Trompette Americain, p. 5), showed that the 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 See also:French. P. L. Sclater and O. Salvin in their Nomenclator (p. 141) admit 6 See also:species of Trumpet-Birds: (i) the See also:original Psophia crepitans of See also:Guiana; (2) P. napensis of eastern See also:Ecuador (which is very likely 1 Not to be confounded with the " See also:Heron Agami " of See also:Buffon (Oiseaux, ii. 382), which is the See also:Ardea agami of other writers.the original " Oiseau trompette " of De la Condamine) ; (3) P. ochroptera from the right See also:bank of the Rio See also:Negro; (4).P. leucoptera from the right bank of the upper Amazons; (5) P. vsridss from the right bank of the See also:Madeira: and (6) P. obscura from the right bank of the See also: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 he separated by See also:rivers, a statement confirmed by A. R.

See also:

Wallace (Geogr. Distr. Animals, ii. 358) ; and in connexion therewith it may bb observed that these birds have See also:short wings and seldom See also:fly, but run, though with a peculiar gait, very quickly. A seventh species P. cantatrix, from See also:Bolivia, has since been indicated by W. See also:Blasius (Journ. f. Ornith., 1884, pp. 203–2,0), who has given a monographic See also:summary of the whole See also:group very worthy of See also:attention. The See also:chief distinctions between the species See also:lie in See also:colour and See also: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 See also:fowl; but its See also:neck and legs are longer, so that it is a taller bird. The See also:head and neck are clothed with short velvety feathers: the whole plumage is See also:black, except' that on the lower front of the neck the feathers are tipped with See also:golden See also:green, changing according to the See also:light into See also:violet, and that a patch of dull rusty See also:brown extends across the See also:middle of the back and wing-coverts, passing into ash-colour lower down, where they hang over and conceal the tail. The legs are See also:bright See also:pea-green.

The habits of this bird are very wonderful, and it is much to be wished that See also:

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 See also:man described; but the See also:information supplied to Buffon (Oiseaux, iv. 496–50,) by Manoncour and De la Borde; which has been repeated in many See also:works, is still the best we have of the curious way in which it becomes semi-domesticated by the See also:Indians and colonists and shows strong See also:affection for its owners as well as for their living See also:property—poultry or See also:sheep—though in this re-claimed See also:condition it seems never to breed.' Indeed nothing can be positively asserted as to its mode of See also:nidification; but its eggs, according to C. E. See also:Bartlett, are of a creamy white, rather See also:round, and about the size of bantams'. C. See also:Waterton in his Wanderings (Second See also:Journey, See also:chap. iii.) speaks of falling in with flocks of 200 or 300 ` Waracabas, as he called them, in See also:Demerara, but added nothing to our knowledge of the species; while the contributions of Trail (Mem. Wern. Society, v. 523–532) and as Dr See also:Hancock (Mag. Nat. See also:History, 2nd See also:series, vol. ii. pp.

490-492) as regards its habits only See also:

touch upon them in captivity. To the trumpeters must undoubtedly be accorded the See also:rank of a distinct See also:family, Psophiidae; but like so many other South-See also:American birds they seem to be the less specialized descendants of an See also:ancient generalized group—perhaps the See also:common ancestors of the Rallidae and Gruidae. The structure of the trachea, though different from that described in any See also:Crane (q.v.), suggests an See also:early See also:form of the structure which in some of the Gruidae is so marvellously See also:developed, for in Psophia the See also:windpipe runs down the See also:breast and belly immediately under the skin to within about an See also:inch of the anus, whence it returns in a similar way to the front of the sternum, and then enters the See also:thorax. Analogous instances of this formation occur in several other See also:groups of birds not at all allied to the Psophiidae. (A.

End of Article: TRUMPETER

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TRUNK (Fr. tronc, Lat. truncus, cut off, maimed)

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