460 BUSTARDS, THICKNEES, AND GRANES. 
down and skulk, with its outstretched neck closely applied to the ground, and in 
this position is most likely to be mistaken for a large stone, unless its large eye 
should happen to attract the spectators attention. 
THE SERIEMAS. 
Family CARIAMIDA, 
The remarkable birds known as seriemas, which are represented by two 
species, assigned to as many genera, are confined to South America, and are some . 
of those puzzling forms which render systematic ornithology so difficult and un- 
satisfactory. Various views have obtained as to the relationship of these birds, 
some ornithologists believing that they are allied to the secretary-vulture. On 
this view they were at one time placed among the Accipitrines; but as they possess 
the slit (schizognathous) palate, which is the older type, it is clear that if they have 
relation to the secretary-vulture, the latter (as Mr. Beddard suggests) must be 
transferred here, as being a more specialised form. Many ornithologists are, 
however, now of opinion that the nearest allies of the seriemas are the rails, 
bustards, and cranes; although there is still much divergence of view as to their 
exact position. Mr. Sclater’s plan of placing them between the bustards and 
cranes, in near association with the trumpeters, which is followed here, must, how- 
ever, be regarded as a more or less provisional measure; and it must be confessed 
that the inclusion of these two families in the Alectorides very seriously interferes 
with any attempt to define that group. In any case, a linear arrangement of the 
members of this and the allied order cannot possibly express their true relation- 
ships. While agreeing with the bustards in their holorhinal skulls, and the absence 
of tracts bare of plumage on the sides of the neck, the seriemas differ by the 
presence of four toes, and by the breast-bone having but one notch, as well as by 
the presence of a naked oil-gland; the latter bemg almost the only character 
by which the group can be differentiated from the rails, in which the oil-gland is 
tufted. 
The Brazilian seriema (Cariama cristata), from South-Eastern Brazil, is a 
long-legged, and somewhat long-necked bird, of somewhat larger size than a 
bittern, and with a peculiarly upright carriage. The head is large, and the beak 
comparatively short, broad, and depressed, with its tip bent down somewhat after 
the fashion of that of a vulture. In the leg the tibia is bare for some distance, the 
metatarsus is covered in front with scutes, and the short toes are provided with 
strong curved claws, which also recall those of an accipitrine. A tuft of bristly 
feathers metatarises from the base of the bill, while there is also a short crest on the 
neck, and the feathers of the breast are lanceolate. The wing is short, although hard 
and powerful, with the fourth and fifth quills the longest, and the secondaries greatly 
elongated; the tail being long, graduated, and composed of ten feathers. The 
internal anatomy comes nearest to that of the cranes, with some approach to the 
rails. In general colour, the plumage is grey, each feather being marked with 
zigzag darker lines on the upper-parts; the elongated feathers of the head and 
neck are blackish brown; the quills are brown, with white bands on the inner 
