cariama

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The native name of a grallatorial bird of South America, the seriema.
• noun [capitalized] [NL.] A genus of birds (Brisson, 1760), the type being the seriema, the Palamedea cristata (Linnæus), Microdactylus marcgravii (Geoffroy St. Hilaire), Dicholophus cristatus (Illiger), now usually called Cariama cristata: a bird of uncertain affinities, sometimes classed with cranes, sometimes with hawks, and again left by itself.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun the type genus of the Cariamidae, consisting only of the Cariama cristata, also called the seriema.
• noun (Zoöl.) A large, long-legged cranelike South American wading bird (Cariama cristata, formerly Dicholophus cristatus) which preys upon snakes, etc.; it is also called the seriema, but that latter name is also applied to another South American bird. See seriema.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the type genus of the Cariamidae comprising only the crested cariama