120 PALAMEDEID.E. 



Description. Slaty grey, blacker on the back ; chin, neck, and checks whitish ; 

 a naked ring round the neck; nape crested; belly whitish; feet red : whole 

 length 32-0 inches, wing 19-0, tail 8-0. Female similar. 



Hab. Southern Brazil, Paraguay, and La Plata. 



This majestic bird, called Chajd in the vernacular,, is common through- 

 out the Plata district, in marshes and on the open level country 

 abounding in water and succulent grasses, and ranges south to the 

 neighbourhood of Bahia Blanca. It is most abundant on the pampas 

 south of Buenos Ayres city, and on that vast expanse of perfectly level, 

 green country the bird is seen at its best ; it is there an important 

 feature in the landscape ; its vocal performances are doubly impressive 

 on account of the profound silence of nature, and its singularity the 

 contrast between its aerial habit and ponderous structure strikes one 

 more forcibly where the view is so unobstructed and the atmosphere 

 so pure. 



The Crested Screamer, like most of the larger birds and mammals 

 in every part of the globe to which European emigration is attracted, is 

 probably doomed to rapid extermination. My observations of the bird, 

 in that portion of the pampas where it is most abundant, date back 

 some years, to a time when the inhabitants were few and mainly of 

 Spanish race, never the destroyers of bird-life. The conditions had 

 become extremely favourable to this species. It is partially aquatic in 

 its habits ; and in desert places is usually found in marshes, wading iu 

 the shallow water, and occasionally swimming to feed on the seeds and 

 succulent leaves of water-loving plants. After the old giant grasses of 

 the pampas had been eaten up by the cattle, and the sweet grasses of 

 Europe had taken their place, the Screamers took kindly to that new 

 food, preferring the clovers, and seemed as terrestrial in their feeding- 

 habits as Upland Geese. Their food was abundant, and they were never 

 persecuted by the natives. Their flesh is very dark, is coarse-grained 

 but good to eat, with a flavour resembling that of wild duck, and there 

 is a great deal of meat on a bird with a body larger than that of a Swan. 

 Yet no person ever thought of killing or eating the Chaja ; and the birds 

 were permitted to increase to a marvellous extent. It was a common 

 thing a few years ago in the dry season to see them congregated in 

 thousands : and so little afraid of man were they that I have often 

 ridden through large scattered flocks without making the birds take 

 wing. 



A curious thing about the Screamer is that it pairs for life, and yet 

 is one of the most social of birds. But if a large flock is closely looked 

 at, the birds are invariably seen methodically ranged in pairs. Another 



