Dr. G. Hartlaub on a new Form of Grallatorial Bird. 451 
On a New Form or GRALLATORIAL BIRD NEARLY ALLIED 
To THE CariaMA (DicHotornus cristatus). By Dr. G. 
Hartiavus, Foreign MemMBer. 
Professor H. Burmeister of Halle, who has lately returned to 
Europe after an absence of about three years in the southern portion 
of South America, has communicated to me the following notice of 
a new species of Grallatorial Bird, very nearly allied to the Cariama, 
which he met with in the woody parts of the Argentine Republic, and 
which I have the pleasure to name after him Dicholophus Burmeisteri. 
This discovery is the more important and interesting, inasmuch 
as the Cariama has, until now, remained rather an isolated type, 
widely separated from even its nearest relatives. 
The Chunga, as this bird is called by the Spanish inhabitants of 
the Republic, seems to differ subgenerically from Dicholophus in the 
following points :—The lores are equally and thickly plumose ; there 
is no conspicuous frontal erest ; the tail is comparatively longer, and 
the tarsus comparatively shorter; the nails are nearly uniform on all 
the toes, and are stronger, larger, and more curved than in the Cariama. 
A very important difference, perhaps the most important, consists in 
the totally different habits of the more northern representative. Pro- 
fessor Burmeister proposes for it a subgeneric division, under the name 
of Chunga. 
The Chunga is a large bird, of about 29 inches in length; it is 
found in the wooded districts of the province of Tucuman and 
Catamarca; it nests on the ground. Its eggs are white, slightly 
spotted with rufous. It feeds upon insects, and more especially upon 
locusts. The young have a rufous dress, thickly undulated with 
black : they very soon begin to take care of themselves. The Chunga 
is easily domesticated, and seems, even after a few days of captivity, 
attached to its master. Professor Burmeister saw two of them on a 
farm, which were of the size of an (dienemus, and still bore their 
downy plumage. They were fed upon little morsels of beef, but 
rejected larger pieces, as well as the entrails of fowls. They delighted 
in collecting bones, which they were in the habit of striking upon a 
stone and breaking to pieces. During the day they stalked gravely 
about, visited the house, jumped upon the tables and chairs, always 
collecting food, and slept at night at certain elevated stations, for in- 
stance on the projecting roof of the verandah. Professor Burmeister 
obtained a living bird at Catamarca, and observed it for some length 
of time. He saw it for the first time at the foot of the Sierra de 
Aronguiga, where it ran very quickly and shyly over the road and 
disappeared in the forest. In its wild state it is very difficult to kill ; 
therefore it is preferable to search for the nest, and bring up the 
young birds by hand. The cry of this bird is heard very frequently 
in the district where it is found; it resembles that of the Dicho- 
lophus cristatus, and sounds like the bark of a young dog, but not 
uite so loud. ‘The internal structure is quite the same as that of 
icholophus. 
DicuoLopuus BurMEIsSTER!I, Hartlaub. 
Statura et ptilosi ut in D. cristato; crista frontali vix ulla, 
