Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/323

Rh TROOP (an adaptation of Fr. troupe, O. Fr. trope; cf. Ital. troppa, truppa; Med. Lat. truppus; the origin is doubtful; suggestions have been made that it represents a German conception of Latin turbo, crowd, or is an adaptation of Norw. torp, flock), a company or assemblage of persons, the term being usually applied in the plural to a body of soldiers of varying strength and of different arms. Specifically, a “troop” is one of the smaller units into which a regiment of horse-soldiers is divided, forming a subdivision of a squadron. Roughly speaking, it consists of sixteen files, and does not exceed from 30 to 40 sabres; in some armies, however, a maximum limit of 60 sabres are found (see ). For the military ceremony known as “trooping of the colours,” see.  TROPHY (Gr., from , put to flight; Lat. tropaeum), in classical antiquities, in the strict sense a memorial of victory set up on the field of battle at the spot where the enemy had been routed. It consisted of captured arms and standards hung upon a tree (preferably an olive or an oak) and booty heaped up at its foot, dedicated to the god to whom the victory was attributed, especially Zeus Tropaeus. If no suitable tree was at hand, a lopped trunk was fixed in the ground on an eminence. The tree or trunk bore an inscription containing the names of the god and the combatants, a list of the booty and of the chief incidents of the battle or the entire war. In the case of a naval victory the trophy, composed of the beaks of ships (sometimes an entire ship), was generally set up on the nearest beach and consecrated to Poseidon. It was regarded as a sacrilege to destroy a trophy, since it was dedicated to a god; but, on the other hand, one that had fallen to pieces through lapse of time was not restored, to prevent feelings of resentment being kept alive. For the same reason trophies of stone or metal were forbidden by law, although this rule was not always observed. To facilitate reconciliation with their conquered foes, neither the Macedonians nor the Romans in early times erected such trophies. The usual custom was to take home the spoils, and to use them for decorating public buildings and private houses. The first example of a trophy set up after the Greek fashion occurs in 121, when Domitius Ahenobarbus celebrated his victory over the Allobroges in this manner. Although instances are not uncommon in later times, the Romans still showed a preference for setting up the memorials of victory in Rome rather than on the field of battle. These were decorated with the spoils, and were themselves called trophies; such were the trophies of Marius recording his victories over Jugurtha and the Cimbri and Teutones. In later republican and imperial times enormous columns, on which the chief incidents of a battle or war were represented in bas-relief, were frequently erected, the most famous and most perfect example being the column of Trajan (see : Archaeology, “The Imperial Forums”).  TROPIC-BIRD, so called of sailors from early times, because as W. Dampier (Voyages, i. 53) among many others testifies, it is “never seen far without either Tropick”; hence, indulging a pretty fancy, Linnaeus bestowed on it the generic term, continued by modern writers, of Phaethon, in allusion to its attempt to follow the path of the sun. There are certainly three well-marked species of this genus, but their respective geographical ranges have not yet been definitely laid down. All of them can be easily known by their totipalmate condition, in which the

four toes of each foot are united by a web, and by the great length of the two middle tail-quills, which project beyond the rest, so as to have gained for the birds the name of “Rabijunco,” “Paille-en-queue” and “Pijlstaart” among mariners of different nations. These birds fly to a great distance from land and seem to be attracted by ships, frequently hovering round or even settling on the mast-head. Their flight is performed by rapid strokes, unlike the action of other long-winged sea-fowl, and they are rarely seen on the water.

The yellow-billed tropic-bird, P. flavirostris or candidus, appears to have habitually the most northerly, as well, perhaps, as the widest range, visiting Bermuda yearly to breed there, but also occurring numerously in the southern Atlantic, the Indian, and a great part of the Pacific Ocean. In some islands of all these three it breeds, sometimes on trees, which the other species are not known to do. However, like the rest of its congeners, it lays but a single egg, and this is of a pinkish white, mottled, spotted, and smeared with brownish purple, often so closely as to conceal the ground colour. This is the smallest of the group, and hardly exceeds in size a large pigeon; but the spread of its wings and its long tail make it appear more bulky than it really is. Except some black markings on the face (common to all the species known), a large black patch partly covering the scapulars and wing-coverts, and the black shafts of its elongated rectrices its ground colour is white, glossy as satin, and often tinged with roseate. Its yellow bill readily distinguishes it from its larger congener P. aethereus, but that has nearly all the upper surface of the body and wings closely barred with black, while the shafts of its elongated rectrices are white. This species has a range almost equally wide as the last; but it does not seem to occur in the western part of the Indian Ocean. The third and largest species, the red-tailed tropic-bird, P. rubricauda or phoenicurus, not only has a red bill, but the elongated and very attenuated rectrices are of a bright crimson red, and when adult the whole body shows 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 numerous 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, Phaethontidae, of the Steganopodes (the Dysporomorphae of Huxley), was originally maintained by Brandt, and is now generally admitted, yet it cannot be denied that they differ a good deal from the other members of the group ; indeed St G. Mivart in the Zoological Transactions (x. 364) hardly allowed Fregata and Phaethon to be steganopodous at all; and one curious difference is shown 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 Alph. Milne-Edwards in A. Grandidier's fine Oiseaux de Madagascar (pp. 701-704, pls. 279-281a).

 TROPINE, C8H15NO, a base formed together with tropic acid, C9H10O3, in the hydrolysis of the alkaloid atropine (K. Kraut, Ann., 1863, 128, p. 280; 1865, 133, p. 87). It crystallizes in plates which melt at 63° C. and boil at 233° C.; it is very hygroscopic and easily soluble in water. It is an optically inactive, strongly alkaline tertiary base. On heating with sodium in amyl alcoholic solution it it transformed into a stereoisomer, identical with the -tropine obtained by hydrolysing tropa-cocaine with hydrochloric acid. It possesses alcoholic properties, since it forms esters, the so-called “tropeines.” On distillation with caustic baryta or soda lime it decomposes into methyl amine and tropilidine, C7H8 (A. Ladenburg, Ann. 1883, 217, p. 74), the same hydrocarbon being also obtained when it is destructively methylated, a certain amount of tropiline, C7H10O, being produced simultaneously. When heated with fuming hydrochloric acid to 150–180° C. it yields tropidine, C8H13N, and with hydriodic acid similarly forms an