COPARCENARY 



IM 



i* covered witli forest*, which form the main 

 natural \\i-alth <>f tin- country, though gold ami iron 

 are fuuiui. Tin' natives, a branch of tlie Dravidiiui 

 Mo<-k, -pi-aking a language akin to Kanarese, are 

 handsome and athletic mountaineers. AffrieCUton 

 is limited to tin- valleys. Coll'ee ( injured recently 

 by disease), cardamoms, and cinchona are grown. 

 I'oKaudry used to l>e the rule. Cairns and dolmens 

 are * common, and the country is intersected by 

 earthen ramparts, which are from 15 to 25 feet in 

 height, with deep ditches. 



Coot ( Fit lict i ), a water-bird in the same family 

 as the rails (KalliduO, and in the old order Grallce. 

 The members of the genus are well marked by a 

 scalloped fringe round the long toes, which thus 

 show an approach to the webbed condition. The 

 beak is straight and short, but expands in a curious 

 swollen patch on the front of the forehead. The 

 tail is very short. The coots are essentially 

 aquatic, almost always afloat, and especially fre- 

 quent still waters. They feed on water-plants and 

 small animals. The European species generally 

 migrate southwards in winter. 



The Common Coot ( F. atra ) is widely distributed 

 in Central and South Europe, and in Western 

 Asia. It is about 16 inches in length, and has a 



Common Coot (Fulica atra). 



predominantly slaty black colour, with a narrow 

 white band across the wings. The bill and the bald 

 forehead expansion are bright white, the feet more 

 or less green. Coots make a large rough nest of 

 water-plants and stems among the rushes, or on a 

 rock in the middle of the stream. They are not 

 much esteemed for eating, but are readily and often 

 *hot in large numbers when congregated thickly on 

 the mud-banks. In the north of Scotland the coot 

 is only a summer bird, but in the south of England 

 they stay all the year. The American Coot (F. 

 Americana) is common in all parts of North 

 America. 



Coote, SIR EYRE, soldier, born in County 

 Limerick in 1726, entered the army at an early age, 

 and from 1754 to 1762 served in India. It was ny 

 his arguments that Clive was induced to risk the 

 battle of Plassey, and for his services in this and 

 other engagements, Coote was in 1759 given the 

 command of the newly-raised 84th regiment. In 

 1760 he defeated Lally-Tollendal (q.v.) at Wandi- 

 wash ; and his capture of Pondicherry in 1761 

 completed the downfall of the French in India. 

 Coote returned to England, and was knighted in 

 1771. In 1779 he assumed the command-iri-chief 

 in India, wit h the rank of lieutenant-general, and 

 in 1781 he routed Hyder Ali at Porto Novo ; his 

 victory here, with the successes that followed, a 

 second time saving the presidency. He died at 

 Madras, 26th April 1783. 



4'ootHiill, a town in County Cavan, Ireland, 

 HS milt* NW. of Dublin. Pop. 1589. 



Copaiba, <>r COPAIVA, BALSAM OF, a valuable 



drug, coii-i-ting i liietly of a resin (resin of copaiba) 

 and a volatile oil (oil of copaiba). It flown from 

 incisions jn the stems of various species of copaifera 

 trees, natives of the American tropics, which belong 

 to the natural order Legutninosa*. When these tree* 

 become old or surcharged with copaiba, it U no un- 

 usual thing for the stems to burst with a loud boom 

 ing sound. The balsam has a peculiar, aromatic, but 

 not disagreeable odour, which, however, vt highly 

 persistent, while its taste is decidedly acrid. It has 

 stimulant properties, is diuretic, laxative, and in 

 large doses often an active purgative. It is, how- 

 ever, mostly on account of its powerful action on 

 the mucous membrane that it is used, and it is 

 accordingly much employed in affections of the 

 urino-genital system, in chronic catarrhs, &c. The 

 resin itself has been found efficacious given in the 

 form of a cough-pill. Balsam of copaiba is some- 

 times adulterated with castor-oil or volatile oils. 

 The former of these is readily detected if any milki- 

 ness is produced when the balsam is shaken with 

 ten times its volume of petroleum benzin. The 

 volatile oils mav be recognised by shaking the 

 balsam with a little alcohol, when, being more 

 soluble, they are removed first. 



Copais, LAKE. See BOSOTIA. 



4 'opal, a resinous substance used for a variety 

 of purposes in the arts. It appears in commerce 

 in smooth rounded masses, colourless or lemon- 

 yellow, translucent or transparent, rather brittle, 

 and in a cold state, almost without smell or taste. 

 It is readily fusible and inflammable, is insoluble 

 in water, and only partially soluble in alcohol and 

 oil of turpentine, but becomes entirely soluble in 

 them when it has been for a short time, melted. 

 Various useful pale-yellow or almost colourless 

 varnishes and lacquers are made by dissolving 

 melted copal in alcohol, oil of turpentine, or boiled 

 linseed -oil. The chief sources of copal are the 

 East Indies, Africa, and South America, but the 

 varieties derived from these countries differ in their 

 origin. The East Indian is the exudation of a large 

 tree, Valeria Indica, and possibly also of different 

 species of Hymenea, which probably yield the 

 Brazilian variety. Zanzibar supplies most of the 

 best copal. Gum Animt is the name applied to 

 copal frequently found in rounded masses embedded 

 in sandy soil. 



Copalclli Bark, a bark resembling Cascarilla 

 Bark (q.v.) in its properties, and produced by a 

 sin ub of the same genus, Croton nireus, a native of 

 Central America (see CROTON). The bark is in 

 quills a foot or two in length, and has a thin corky 

 epidermis. Copalchi Bark is much used as a sub- 

 stitute for cinchona in Mexico, where it goes by 

 the name of Quina blanca, and is imported, although 

 not to a large extent, into Europe. It contains a 

 minute proportion of a bitter alkaloid resembling 

 quinine. 



Copan, an Indian village in the south-western 

 corner of the Central American state of Honduras, 

 in a mountainous region, the site of a city still 

 populous at the time of the conquest, and of which 

 magnificent ruins still remain, first described by 

 Stephens. 



Coparcenary, an estate in England orig- 

 inating in descent to two or more persons, called 

 thence coparcenars or parcenars. 1 1 generally arises 

 under the rule of law which makes the daughters 

 of one dying without male heirs inherit equally, but 

 it may also arise by local custom, as in the case of 

 Gavelkind (q.v.). Although the property remains 

 undivided, yet each parcenar is entitled to a dia- 



