ded as
identical with the Indian stronghold which, after a heroic resistance,
was stormed by the Spaniards, under Hernando de Chaves, in 1530. It has
given its name to the department in which it is situated.

COPARCENARY (_co-_, with, and _parcener_, i.e. sharer; from O. Fr.
_parconier_, Lat. _partitio_, division), in law, the descent of lands
of inheritance from an ancestor to two or more persons possessing an
equal title to them. It arises either by common law, as where an
ancestor dies intestate, leaving two or more females as his
co-heiresses, who then take as coparceners or parceners; or, by
particular custom, as in the case of gavelkind lands, which descend to
all males in equal degrees, or in default of males, to all the daughters
equally. These co-heirs, or parceners, have been so called, says
Littleton (S 241), "because by writ the law will constrain them, that
partition shall be made among them." Coparcenary so far resembles joint
tenancy in that there is unity of title, interest and possession, but
whereas joint tenants always claim by purchase, parceners claim by
descent, and although there is unity of interest there is no entirety,
for there is no _jus accrescendi_ or survivorship. Coparcenary may be
dissolved (a) by partition; (b) by alienation by one coparcener; (c) by
all the estate at last descending to one coparcener, who thenceforth
holds in severalty; (d) by a compulsory partition or sale under the
Partition Acts.

The term "coparcenary" is not in use in the United States, joint
heirship being considered as _tenancy in common_.

COPE, EDWARD DRINKER (1840-1897), American palaeontologist, descended
from a Wiltshire family who emigrated about 1687, was born in
Philadelphia on the 28th of July 1840. At an early age he became
interested in natural history, and in 1859 communicated a paper on the
Salamandridae to the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. He was
educated partly in the University of Pennsylvania, and after further
study and travel in Europe was in 1865 appointed curator to the Academy
of Natural Sciences, a post which he held till 1873. In 1864-67 he was
professor of natural science in Haverford College, and in 1889 he was
appointed professor of geology and palaeontology in the University of
Pennsylvania. To the study of the American fossil vertebrata he gave his
special attention. From 1871 to 1877 he carried on explorations in the
Cretaceous strata of Kansas, the Ter