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B. I. P.—Brazilian Cariamas



the latter by purchase ; even to see one of our native birds at freedom

for the first time gives one a delightful thrill. I shall not forget the

pleasure with which I caught sight of a Pied Flycatcher about the year

1903, in a wood at West Wickham, nor my astonished delight in 1868

when a Golden Oriole flew across a road in North Devon, although

at that time I had not begun to take a special interest in bird-life.

When one turns one’s attention to foreign birds one experiences a

constant succession of thrills, and at first one is tempted to add aviary

to aviary for the pleasure of studying them ; but unhappily this is an

expensive hobby, and it needs much leisure if one is to do justice to it;

and then we grow older, and perchance our purse gets lighter, so that

we reluctantly are compelled to take up some simpler (though perhaps

equally attractive) hobby, such as floriculture. Alas ! I fear that

growing flowers and ferns will not enable me to publish many new or

interesting facts for the benefit of my fellow-creatures, and it is certainly

not likely to help our Society, but where I fail I hope many of our

younger and better equipped members will come to the front for the

advancement of knowledge.


I have no doubt that the pursuit of hobbies lengthens life ; if it

is true that Henry Jenkins, of Ellerton, in Yorkshire, lived to the age

of 169, as stated in the Daily Express for August 27, how many hobbies

did he indulge in, and did they benefit anybody but himself ? If not

his long life was unprofitable to his country.



BRAZILIAN CARIAMAS


Mr. George Chalmers, C.M.Z.S., Superintendent of the St. John

del Rey Mining Co., Ltd., Morro Yelho, Brazil, recently forwarded to

the Zoological Society a pair of Brazilian Cariamas or Seriemas

(Cariama cristala), and sent the following notes on the habits of these

birds :—


“ It is hardly necessary to tell you that they feed largely on snakes,

which they quickly kill and then fight over as a rule. The birds are

generally to be found following a £ campo ’ fire, gobbling up partially

burnt grasshoppers and other insects. They have a very extraordinary

cry, or rather a chorus; when four or five are together they are very



