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294 Boye, Field Notes on the Seriema. Taly 
FIELD NOTES ON THE SERIEMA (CHUNGA BURMEIS- 
TERI). 
BY HOWARTH S. BOYLE. 
On October 21, 1914, Mr. Leo E. Miller and the writer left New 
York for South America on an extended collecting and exploring 
trip of two years. Collections were made in various parts of 
Colombia, Bolivia and the Argentine. It was in the sandy wastes 
of the latter country that the Seriema was found and its habits 
observed. 
Lavalle, 1800 feet, our collecting station, was about seven hours 
by train south of Tucuman, the capital of the Argentine state of 
that name. 
The soil, for the most part, is very dry and affords little oppor- 
tunity for cultivation. Thorn bushes and stunted trees form the 
main growth which, in some places, is really very dense and all but 
impregnable. Water is scarce, though there are several small, 
artificial ponds used mostly by cattle. The railroad furnishes 
water to the few inhabitants once or twice daily. 
Desert-like as it seemed, with its cactus, heat and dust, Lavalle 
proved to be an exceedingly interesting locality for collecting. 
Mammals were very abundant. Viscachas were so numerous as 
to be a pest; their huge and scattered runways were to be seen on 
all sides; living with them, in apparent harmony, were rabbits, 
foxes, skunks, cavies, owls, and boa constrictors. 
It was in this type of country that we found this queer, long- 
legged runner, Chunga burmeisteri, or chufia, as the natives call it. 
Being unique, not only in its classification, but in appearance as 
well, this species as it skipped along a dusty trail only to disappear 
into the dense, brush patches at the slightest sign of danger, gave 
us at once not only an admiration for its beauty and grace, but a 
desire to know more concerning its secretive habits. The eall- 
notes were a series of cries and yelps which were given in chorus; 
that is, one individual would start his queer, turkey-like yelps, 
while other birds joined in until four or five would be chanting at 
the same time. The volume of sound would then diminish and 
