TRUMPETER 991 



the Red-tailed Tropic-bird, P. ruhricauda or phoenicurus, not only 

 has a red bUl, but the elongated and very attenuated rectrices are 

 of a bright crimson-red, and when adult the whole body shews a 

 deep roseate tinge. The young are beautifully barred above with 

 black arrow-headed markings. This species has not been known 

 to occur in the Atlantic, but is perhaps the most numei'ous in the 

 Indian and Pacific Oceans, in which last great value used to be 

 attached to its tail-feathers to be worked into ornaments. 



That the Tropic-birds form a distinct family, Phaetliontidx, of 

 the Steganopodes was originally maintained by Brandt, and is 

 now generally admitted, yet it cannot be denied that they diflfer a 

 good deal from the other members of the group ; indeed Prof. 

 Mivart {Zool. Trans, x. p. 364) will hardly allow Fregata and 

 Fhaethon to be steganopodous at all ; and one curious difference is 

 shewn by the eggs of the latter, which are in appearance so wholly 

 unlike those of the rest. The osteology of two species has 

 been well described and illustrated by Prof. Milne-Edwards in 

 M. Grandidier's fine Oiseaux de Madagascar (pp. 701-704, pis. 

 279-281a). 



TRUMPETER, or Trumpet-bird, the literal rendering in 

 1747, by the anonymous English translator of De la Condamine's 

 travels in South America (p. 87), of that writer's " Oiseau 

 trompette" {M6m. Acad. Sc. 745, p. 473), which he says was 

 called " Trompetero " by the Spaniards of Maynas on the Upper 

 Amazons, from the peculiar sound it utters. He added that it 

 was the " Agami " of the inhabitants of Para and Cayenne,^ wherein 

 he was not wholly accurate, since the birds are specifically distinct, 

 though, as they are generically united, the statement may pass. 

 But he was also wrong, as had been Barrere {France Equinox. 

 p. 132) in 1741, in identifying the "Agami" with the "Macu- 

 cagua " of Marcgrave, for that is a TiNAMOU (p. 963) ; and both still 

 more wrongly accounted for the origin of the peculiar sound just 

 mentioned, whereby Barrere was soon after led {Orn. Spec. Nov. 

 pp. 62, 63) to apply to the bird the generic and vulgar names of 

 P Sophia and " Petteuse," the former of which, being unfortunately 

 adopted by Linnaeus, has ever since been used, though in 1766 

 and 1767 Pallas {Miscell. p. 67, and Spicileg. iv. p. 6), and in 

 1768 Vosmser (Descr. du Trompette Amiricain, p. 5), shewed that 

 the notion it conveys is erroneous. Among English writers the 

 name " Trumpeter " was carried on by Pennant, 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. 



1 Not to be confounded with the " H^ron Agami " of BufiFon {Ois. vii. p. 382), 

 which is the Ardea agami of other writers. 



