162 CARTAMID^l. 



pillars, but also eats berries and fleshy fruits, and, it is said, snakes and 

 other reptiles. It breeds in low bushes ; and lays two roundish, spotted 

 eg-ffs, which in colour somewhat resemble those of the Crakes and Rails. 



C5o J 



This bird is often brought alive to Europe, and examples may always 

 be seen in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London. Here 

 they have paired and nested on more than one occasion, but have not 

 succeeded in rearing their young. The frontispiece to the first volume 

 of this work, which represents the Crested Cariama, is taken from one 

 of these captive birds. 



384. CHUNGA BURMEISTERI (HartL). 

 (BURMEISTER'S CARIAMA.) 



Dicholophus burmeisteri, HartL P. Z. S. 1860, p. 335; Burm. La-Plata 

 Reise, ii. p. 506 (Rioja, Catamarca, Tucuman). Chunga burmeisteri, ScL 

 P. Z. S. 1870, p. 666, pi. xxxvi. ; ScL et Salv. Nomencl. p. 141. Cariama 

 burmeisteri, Salvin, Ibis, 1880, p. 364 (Tucuman). 



Description. A very slight frontal crest; plumage cinereous, the feathers 

 crossed by very narrow bands of whitish and black ; lores and long superciliary 

 stripe white : beneath paler on the chest ; lower belly and crissum fulvous 

 white ; wings brownish black, beneath with broad blackish bars ; tail like the 

 back, but with two broad black subterminal cross bands, except on the two 

 middle rectrices ; bill and feet black : whole length 28-0 inches, wing 12'0, 

 tail 14*0. Female similar. 



Hab. Northern Argentina. 



This Cariama, which much resembles the Crested Cariama in general 

 appearance though smaller in size, and distinguished by several struc- 

 tural characters, is one of the many discoveries of the distinguished 

 naturalist whose name it appropriately bears. Dr. Burmeister first met 

 with the " Chunia," as this bird is called by the natives, in the province 

 of Tucuman during his travels in the northern parts of the Argentine 

 Republic in 1859. 



The Chunia, he tells us, is naturally friendly to mankind, and is 

 often kept tame in the courtyards of houses along with the domestic 

 fowls, amongst which it stalks about, eating remnants of flesh and large 

 insects, especially grasshoppers. At night it roosts upon the roofs of 

 the corridors. 



In a free state the Chunia lives in the forests, running about in the 

 bush in the daytime, and roosting in the summit of the large trees. 

 The nest is placed in bushes, not very high, and the young birds are 

 often taken when half-fledged and become quickly accustomed to 

 captivity. 



