[Illustration: FIG. 53.–Seriemá. _Cariama cristata._ × ⅐.] Both species are chiefly diurnal, the former frequenting the high grass of the open "campos" in pairs and parties of five or six, the latter forests or bushy districts; they roost on trees, {260}stalk about in stately fashion, stoop when running, and fly a little when hard pressed. The barking or screaming cry is chiefly heard towards dusk; the food consists of small mammals, snakes, lizards, snails, worms, insects and their larvae, as well as berries, _Chunga_ preferring the insect diet. Easily domesticated, and in Brazil protected by custom, these birds will guard their owners' fowls; while the male at times incubates and shews off to the females in spring, like a Bustard. _Cariama_ builds a nest of twigs in low trees or bushes; _Chunga_ generally chooses the ground; but in either case the young soon leave their quarters; the two eggs have a pale ground-colour with rufous blotches, as in so many Rails. The Seriemá has been hatched in the Zoological Society's Gardens in London. The fossil _Phororhachos_ and certain others of the so-called Stereornithes (p. 44) probably belong here. Fam. VI. OTIDIDAE.–The Bustards are here admitted as a Family of the Gruiformes, though many writers have preferred to refer them to the Limicolae, and the question is by no means finally settled. The head is flat, the neck thick, the bill somewhat blunt and depressed, being either short, as in _Otis_ and _Trachelotis_, or longer, as in _Neotis_ and _Lissotis_. The metatarsus varies much, the length for instance being comparatively great in _Houbaropsis_, and small in _Otis tetrax_, while both surfaces are covered with reticulated scales; the short, stout toes have flattish nails, and the hallux is absent, as in many Limicoline forms. The wings are moderate, with the secondaries almost equal to the primaries, the latter–which are acuminate in _Sypheotis_–being eleven in number, and the former about twenty; the tail, of medium length, has a more or less rounded outline, and possesses from fourteen to twenty rectrices. Ornamental plumes are characteristic of this group, and take the form of decided crests on the crown and nape, or on the latter alone, in all the genera except _Otis_, _Neotis_, _Lissotis_, _Trachelotis_, and _Sypheotis_; the last-named, however, has elongated cheek-feathers with bare shafts and spatulate webs. The plumes of the throat and fore-neck are lengthened and shield the breast in _Houbaropsis_ and _Eupodotis_, those of the sides of the neck form a ruff in _Houbara_; while _Otis_ is remarkable for the prolonged ear-coverts, and for the tuft of long bristly feathers on each side of the base of the mandible in the male.