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SERIEMA, or CARIAMA
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See also:SERIEMA, or CARIAMA , a See also:South-See also:American See also:bird, sufficiently well described and figured in G. de L. Marcgrav's See also:work (Hist. rer. nat. Brasiliae, p. 203), posthumously published by De Laet in 1648, to be recognized by succeeding ornithologists,' among whom M. J. See also:Brisson in 176o acknowledged it as forming a distinct genus Cariama, while See also:Linnaeus regarded it as a second See also:species of Palamedea (see See also:SCREAMER), under the name of P. cristata, Englished by J. Latham in 1785 (Synopsis, v. 20) the " Crested Screamer,"—an appellation since transferred to a wholly different bird. Nothing more seems to have been known of it in See also:Europe till 1803, when See also:Azara published at See also:Madrid his
1 Yet See also:Forbes states (See also:Ibis, 1881, p. 358) that Seriema comes from Siri, " a diminutive of See also:Indian extraction," and Ema, the Portuguese name for the See also:Rhea (see See also:EMEU), the whole thus meaning " Little Rhea."
2 This distinguished author twice cites the figure given by Thienemann (Fortpflanzungsgesch. gesammt. See also:Vogel, pl. lxxii. fig. 14) asfully covered with See also:grey down, relieved by See also: The See also:food of the adult is almost exclusively See also:animal, See also:insects, especially large ants, snails, lizards and See also:snakes, but it also eats certain large red berries. Until 186o the Seriema was believed to be without any near relative in the living See also:world of birds;' but in the Zoological Proceedings for that See also:year (pp. 334–336) G. Hartlaub described an allied species discovered by H. C. C. Burmeister in the territory of the See also:Argentine See also:Republic.' This bird, which has since been regarded as entitled to generic See also:division under the name of Chunga burmeisteri (P.Z.S., 187o, p. 466, pl. See also:xxxvi.), and seems to be known in its native See also:country as the " Chunnia," differs from the Seriema by frequenting See also:forest or at least bushy districts. It is also darker in See also:colour, has less of the frontal See also:crest, shorter legs, a longer tail, and the markings beneath take the See also:form of bars rather than stripes, while the See also:bill, eyes and legs are all See also:black. In other respects the difference between the two birds seems to be immaterial. There are few birds which have more exercised the taxonomer than this, and the See also:reason seems to be See also:plain. The Seriema must be regarded as the not greatly modified See also:heir of some very old type, such as one may fairly imagine to have lived before many of the existing See also:groups of birds had become differentiated, and it is probable that the See also:extinct birds known as Stereornithes, and in particular the fossil Phororhachos from the See also:Miocene of See also:Patagonia, were closely allied to its ancestors. It is now placed in the See also:family Cariamidae of Gruiform birds (see BIRD). (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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