104



Correspondence.


CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



THE TRUMPETER BIRD.


Sir, — I trust Mr. Harper will not think me uncourteous if I quote

my authority for the name “ Agami” in reference to the Trumpeter Bird.

In his Dictionary of Birds, Prof. Newton gives as follows: “Trumpeter or

Trumpet Bird,” the literal rendering, in 1747, by the anonymous English

translator of De la Condamiue’s Travels in South America—of that writer’s

“ Oiseau trompette''' —which he says was called “Trompetero” by the

Spaniards of Magnas 011 the Upper Amazon, from the peculiar sound it utters.

He added that it was the “ Agami” of the inhabitants of Para and Cayenne

(foot note, not to be confounded with the “ Heron Agami ” of Buffon, which

is the Ardea “Agami” of other writers) wherein he was not wholly accurate

since the birds are specifically distinct, though as they are generally united

the statement may pass. But he was also wrong—as has been Barrere—in

identifying the “Agami” with the “ Macucagua ” of Maregrave, for that

is a Tinamou : and both still more wrongly accounted for the origin of the

peculiar sound just mentioned, whereby Barrere was soon after led to apply

to the bird the generic and vulgar names of Psophia and Pelteuse

the former of which being unfortunately adopted by Linnaeus, has ever

since been used, though in 1766 and 1767 Palas 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.”


“Whitaker, in his ‘ Wanderings,’ speaks of falling in with flocks of

200 or 300 ‘ Warracabas,’ as he calls them, in Demerara.”


Of course, Mr. Harper having lived in the country knows the name

this bird is called by in British Guiana, and as I am trying, through a

Captain out there, to obtain a mate for my bird: I am glad to know the

name “ Warracaba ” is generally used by the natives, as the name “Agami,”

which I had told him, might result in a wrong bird being sent to me.


Octavia Gregory.



Sir, —If Mr. E. W. Harper will look up the article “Trumpeter,” in

the Dictionary of Biids (p. 991), he will see that Mrs. Gregory was justified

in her use of the name “ Agami,” while he is supported by Waterton’s

authority for “Warracaba,” or “ Waracaba.” “ Agami ” as an equivalent of

Psophia crepitans is to be found in most large dictionaries, in Chamber’s

Encyclopaedia, and there are very few books on birds in which it does not

occur. To mention three which are close at hand—in the Royal Natural

History (iv. p.463) it is said that “in the Common Trumpeter, or Agami,

the general hue of the plumage is black” ; in Mr. A. H. Evan’s volume on



