I30 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



CRESTED SCREAMER 



Chaima chavaria 



Slatey grey, darker on the back; chin, neck, and cheeks whitish; a 

 naked ring round the neck ; nape crested ; belly pale grey ; feet red ; 

 length 32, wing 19 inches. 



This majestic bird, called Chaja in the vernacular, 

 is common throughout the Plata district, in marshes 

 and on the open level country abounding in water 

 and succulent grasses, and ranges south to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bahia Blanca. It is most abundant on 

 the pampas south of Buenos Ayres city, and on that 

 vast expanse of perfectly level green cotmtry 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 un- 

 obstructed 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. 



