SOME OF THE OUTLIERS AMONG BIRDS. 771 



ing, of over two feet. We are at first struck witli the peculiar 

 crest of vertical feathers at the base of the upper bill, and this 

 latter being a bright red, and its large and handsome eyes of a 

 clear yellow, the bird has a very animated mien, which is in no 

 way lessened by its stately carriage. The eyes are surrounded by 

 a pale green or bluish skin, while in its general plumage the 

 seriema is a slaty gray, shading off beneath to a soiled white. 

 On the throat, neck, and sides the feathers are loose and long, and 

 are variegated by fine, irregularly transverse lines. The wings 

 and tail are darker and mottled, while the legs are of a pinkish 

 red. The home of this bird are the elevated plains of Brazil, 

 where, in the high grass of those regions, the traveler not infre- 

 quently meets with it. Upon being approached it lowers its body 

 and rapidly skulks away, and, unless the observer be mounted and 

 take after it, it rarely can be induced to take to wing. It lives 

 upon a variety of small animals, as snakes, lizards, and the like, 

 and also eats certain insects, berries, and land snails. Instead of 

 building its nest upon the ground, as one would naturally be led 

 to suppose, it constructs it in the dense undergrowth of bushes, or 

 even some six or seven feet above the ground in a tree. Its two 

 eggs are said to resemble those of some of the crakes or land rails, 

 and the down-covered young long remain in the nest after being 

 hatched.* 



We have said above that the seriema bore a general resem- 

 blance to the secretary bird. Now this latter is a well-known 

 type, and is itself a true " outlier " of the class which inhabits 

 certain parts of Africa (see Fig. G). It derives its vernacular 

 name from the fact that it possesses pairs of long, black feathers, 

 which hang loosely from the back of the head and the neck, re- 

 sembling, in the eyes of some of its describers, the quill stuck 

 above the ear of a clerk. These feathers, when the bird is ex- 

 cited, are capable of erection and dilatation, giving their possessor 

 at such times, an aspect of great fierceness. Standing some four 

 feet in height, and with its raptorial-appearing head, the secre- 

 tary bird, for all the world, looks like some kind of a falcon on 

 stilts. Its general plumage is a slate blue with black wings. The 

 tail is tipped with white, but what is more peculiar about it is 

 that the middle pairs of feathers are greatly elongated, and give 

 to the bird a verj'" singular appearance. 



Living chiefly upon the ground, over which they can run with 

 considerable speed, they nevertheless build their great massive 

 nests in bushes or trees, and deposit therein their two spotted 



* Farther south, or in the Argentine Republic, we meet with another bird the Chunga 

 hurmeis'cri which is undoubtedly a near ally of the seriema, and has l)een, by anatomists, 

 l)ut generically separated from it. 



