CAKIACUa 



AUK-A 



them when in flower are much admired on account of the elegant 

 drooping of their panicle* of golden-coloured flowers. Thin U the 

 case with C. rttu>ta and f. Frattri. UnattractiTe a* the maaa of 

 them plant* are to the general observer, they hare bean carefully 

 studied by botanist*, and Willdenow, Oooilenougli, Wahlenberg, Sckuhr, 

 BoopoU, Boott, Babington, and.S. Gibson have done much to throw 

 light upon thii obscure genii*. Their importance in nature however 

 must not be estimated by their appearance or their utility to man. 

 They frequently form the only vegetation of the swamp, and by their 

 existence and decay they gradually form a soil, on which plant* more 

 immediately useful to man may be grown. 

 CAKI.Vi I'S. [CERTID&1 



CARIAMA, or SARIAMA, the name by which the Palanudea 

 rratala of Omelin, IHchalopkut criitattu of Illiger, Microtiactylut of 

 Oeoffroy, the Sana of the QuaraDis of Paraguay, and the Seriema or 

 Ceriema of the Brazilian natives, is known to the Portuguese colorant* 

 of Brazil. 



Man-grave, Piso, D'Azara, Oeoffroy, and the Prince de Wied have 

 entered into a detailed history of this bird, which has always attracted 

 the notice of zoologist* on account of the curious relations which 

 its structure indicates to the Grallalora (Waders), the Gallinaceous 

 birds, and even the StnUkionidtr. 



It is found in the great solitary mountain-plains, surrounded by the 

 forests which extend over so large a proportion of Brazil, and where 

 its sonorous voice often breaks the silence of the desert. It is also 

 found in Paraguay, but is said to occur there more rarely. It feeds 

 in a state of nature on lizards, insects, and molluscous animals, and 

 not improbably small seeds occasionally. 



The habits of the wild Cariama are of the most retired description. 

 A tenant of the vast solitudes that form its wide spreading tfome, it 

 flies from the face of man ; and being almost always on the watch is 

 very difficult of approach. Stalking slowly on the plain its eye 

 instantly notes the distant intruder, and after a moment's hesitation 

 it decides either to stay or fly, according to the circumstances. Those 

 who have had the best opportunities of observing them in their native 

 wilds state that the hunters, though surrounded by these birds, cannot 

 without considerable labour obtain them. As soon as the bird 

 perceives that it is pursued, it sets off with great rapidity ; the 

 .pursuer follows on horseback, but it is not till after a sharp and 

 tedious course, with all its turns and windings, that the Cariama, 

 wearied out, either crouches on the ground, or alights on some bush 

 or tree. Till this happens the horseman in vain seeks for an oppor- 

 tunity to throw his lasso or pull his trigger. 



But wild as the bird is in its natural state it is easily domesticated, 

 and will live sociably with the other tenants of the poultry-yard. In 

 this state they will eat little pieces of meat, but are said to refuse 

 maize, though it is probable that other kinds of grain may not be 

 disagreeable to them. When thus tamed they will walk about the 

 hamlet or village where they have been brought up, and even return 

 after taking short trips in the fields like the poultry. The flesh is 

 described as very good food ; the Brazilians however do not hunt it 

 for the game-bag. 



The nest is composed of dry sticks and branches, covered with cow- 

 dung, and placed upon a low or a moderately high tree. The eggs are 

 generally two in number and white. 



It has the neck covered with long loose barbed feathers, floating 

 and silky upon the nape, somewhat like those of the bittern : when 

 the bird is excited or frightened it can raise them. A light crest 

 consisting of a few disunited feathers forma an ornamental tuft on the 

 front, and advances upon the base of the bill, which it overshadows, 

 reminding the observer of the crests of the Rupicoltr (Cocks of the 

 Rock) in its disposition. Space round the eyes naked, the nakedness, 

 which is bluish, reaching to the bill. The upper eye-lid fringed with 

 long dark eye-lashes. Feet long and slender, and the toes very short, 

 whence Geoffrey" name. Tail rounded and of moderate length. 



The general colour of the Cnriama is an earthy-brown on the upper 

 part*, while the lower part* are whitish. All the neck-feathers are 

 finely rayed with zigzags of darker lirown than that which forms the 

 general ground-colour of the plumage. The two middle feathers of 

 the tail are brown : the others for the most part black, with white 

 extremities, and marbled with black upon a white ground at their 

 insertion. The wing-feathers are blackish and traversed by whit. 

 beads dotted with blackish. There are delicate zigzags of a clear 

 brown on the feathers of the front of the neck, the ground colour of 

 these feathers being whitish. The feathers of the breast and belly are 

 longitudinally rayed with white in the direction of the shafts. The 

 naked tort of the leg, the feet, and the toes are of an orange-red. 

 The bill, which is of a bright coral red in the adult, is blackish or 

 marbled with black and reddish in the younger birds. The iris is 

 yellow. 



D'Azara gives 30 inches as the length of the young bird described by 

 him ; that of the Prince de Wied was half an inch more, and the adull 

 male of the Museum of the Netherlands, from which Temminck's 

 figure was taken, measures, according to him, 32 inches. The nestlings 

 are covered with down, and with the iris of a very lively yellow. They 

 are very soon able to run. 



Temminck, after observing that the Cariama at first view seems to 

 offer some resemblance to the Secretary. Bird of Africa (Oypogeraniu 



, remarks that this resemblance vanishes upon a closer 

 nspection, and that, if it be permitted to form any judgment from the 

 onus solely, it would seem probable that the skeleton of the Cariama, 

 which was not known when he wrote, ought to have some relationship 



(Jariama (Palamedta crittata). 



with that of the Common Bittern (Botawia ttdlaru), of the Apnni 

 (Piopkia crepilant), and the Gralialora generally. There is a skeleton 

 of a female in the museum of the Zoological Society of London pre- 

 sented by the Earl of Derby, in whose possession the bird died. An 

 account of the anatomy of this bird by Mr. Martin was published in 

 the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society.' In this paper Mr. Mill-tin 

 observes that " in its general aspect the skeleton of the Cariama is 

 very remarkable. The comparative shortness of the neck, the e<.ni- 

 pactness of the chest, and stoutness of the ribs, together with the 

 abbreviated condition of the wings, appear as if out of harmony with 

 the length of the limbs, especially of the tibia and tarsus, while the 

 toes concluding this length of limb are short, the hinder one being 

 situated high and not touching the ground. 



" Though the Cariama in its osseous structure exhibits but little 

 resemblance to the birds of the Raptorial order, it approaches that 

 order very remarkably in the structure of the eye, which is surrounded 

 by a firm consolidated osseous ring. This ring departs materially in 

 its formation from what obtains among the GraUatorei gen. 

 where it is imbricated and slight, and indeed scarcely merits the 

 name of osseous." 



For the anatomy of the bird we refer the reader to Mr. Martin's 

 paper, but wo may observe that, according to Mr Martin, "in the 

 whole of the visceral arrangement a close affinity may be observed to 

 the (Jrut tribe." In the Stanley Crane (Antfiropoidtt paradiimu, 

 Bechxt.) the intestines are similarly dfapowd in folds or loops, and the 

 two caeca, given off 6 inches from the anus, are 4 inches long. In the 

 Stanley Crane however the muscular coat of the gizzard is thicker 

 than in the Cariama, being in some parts an inch across, while in the 

 latter bird it is about one-fourth of an inch ; hence is there in this point 

 an index of a less vegetable regimen. In the Stanley Crane the total 

 length of the intestines is 5 feet 8 inches. In the Cariama it is 3 feet 

 54 inches. 



CA'RICA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 Papayatta. One of the species, C. Papaya, is a remarkable tree 

 found in various parts of South America, with a simple iinbranched 

 erect trunk, from 12 to 20 feet hi^h, abounding in a milky jniee, 

 having broad 7-lobed leaves a foot at least long, and unisexual flowers, 

 the males of which are monopetalous, with ten short stamens inserted 

 in the mouth of the corolla ; the females polypetalous, with a single 

 ovary, having a starry sort of stigma. The fruit is thus described by 

 Hooker in the ' Botanical Magazine : ' " The corolla falls away, and 

 the germen in coming to maturity becomes pendent ; the tree, too, 

 advancing in height casts its lower leaves from below the flowers, and 

 the fruit constituting a large oblong kind of berry, or more correctly 



