Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/15

 TROPICS TROUP nostrils at base of bill, lateral, and pervious ; face covered with feathers; wings long and pointed, the first primary the longest; tarsi short and strong, feet small, and toes fully webbed ; hind toe small ; tail with two long, straw-like feathers, whence the French name paille en queue or straw-tail; sailors call them boatswain bird and marlinspike. In habits and appearance they come near the gulls and terns ; they are chiefly confined to the tropics. Their powers of flight are great, and they are usually seen at considerable distances from land; they live almost entirely on the wing, and, when they do not return to the distant shore to roost, rest upon the surface of the ocean ; they are excellent swimmers. The food consists of fish and other marine animals, which they dart upon from a great height; they are fond of following the shoals of flying fish, seizing them as they emerge from the sea. They are not larger in the body than a pigeon, though longer ; they congregate in considerable numbers at their breeding places, on rocky shores and desert islands, placing the nest on Tropic Bird (Phaeton aethereus). the ground or in holes in trees ; the eggs are two ; their flesh is fishy and tough. The com- mon tropic bird (P. cethereus, Linn.) is about 30 in. long and 38 in. in alar extent ; it is of a satiny white, the wings banded with black, and the head, back, and wings tinged with cream color or light pink ; first five primaries black on the outer webs, and the shafts of the long tail feathers black to near the end, where they are white ; a black mark over eyes to oc- ciput ; bill orange red and iris brown ; tarsus and toes yellow at base, webs and claws black. It sometimes comes near the Florida coast, but is usually seen in the tropical Atlantic far from land. The long tail feathers of the P. pTicenicurus (Gmel.), inhabiting the tropical Pacific, are bright red, and are used as orna- ments by the South sea islanders. TROPICS (Gr. Tpoirfa a turning), in astron- omy, two circles parallel to the equator, at such distance from it as is equal to the greatest recession of the sun from it toward the poles, or to the sun's greatest declination. That in the northern hemisphere is called the tropic of Cancer, and that in the southern the tropic of Capricorn, from their touching the ecliptic in the first points of those signs. (See CANCER, and CAPRICORN.) It is between the tropics that the sun's path is circumscribed, its annual movement being from one to the other and back again in the ecliptic. In geography, the tropics, also known as that of Cancer and that of Capricorn, are the two parallels of latitude (about 23 28' N. and S.) over which the sun is vertical at the solstices. (See SOLSTICE.) TROPLONG, Raymond Theodore, a French ju- rist, born at St. Gaudens, Haute-Garonne, Oct. 8, 1795, died in Paris, March 2, 1869. He early held important judicial offices. In 1846 he was made a peer, in 1848 first president of the court of Paris, and in 1852 of the court of cassation. In 1852 he was made a senator, and in 1854 president of the senate. His prin- cipal work, Le Code civil explique (28 vols., 1833-'58), is a collection of treatises in continu- ation of Toullier's Commentaire du Code civil, many of which have been published separately. TROPPAU, a city and the capital of Austrian Silesia, on the Oppa, 35 m. N. E. of Olmiitz ; pop. in 1870, 16,608. It has six Catholic churches, a palace, a gymnasium with a large library, a museum, and manufactories of beet sugar, flax, and cloth. A congress of sov- ereigns was held here from Oct. 20 to Dec. 20, 1820, preliminary to that of Laybach. The former duchy of Troppau, having been di- vided into the principalities of Troppau and Jagerndorf, was partly annexed to Prussia in Frederick the Great's conquest of Silesia, and forms the S. W. part of Prussian Silesia, with Leobschutz, of the Jagerndorf division, as cap- ital. The territory which remained to Austria after the peace of 1763 constitutes most of the N. part of Austrian Silesia, comprising, besides the capital, Jagerndorf and other manufactur- ing towns. TROlBADOlRSt See PROVENSAL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. TROUP, a W. county of Georgia, bordering on Alabama, and intersected by the Chatta- hoochee river ; area, about 370 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 17,632, of whom 11,224 were colored. The surface is hilly and the soil generally fer- tile. It is intersected by the Atlanta and "West Point railroad. The chief productions in 1870 were 26,645 bushels of wheat, 162,946 of In- dian corn, 34,514 of oats, 29,290 of sweet po- tatoes, and 9,963 bales of cotton. There were 680 horses, 1,698 mules and asses, 1,519 milch cows, 3,027 other cattle, 1,203 sheep, and 6,516 swine ; 1 manufactory of boots and shoes, 2 of cotton goods, 1 of iron castings, 2 of ma- chinery, and 3 saw mills. Capital, La Grange. TROUP, George Mclntosh, an American states- man, born on the Tombigbee river, Sept. 8, 1780, died in Laurens co., Ga., May 3, 1856. He graduated at Princeton college in 1797, was admitted to the bar, and at the age of 21 was elected to the state legislature. Between 1807 and 1815 he was a representative in congress from Georgia, and in 1816 was elected a Urn-