cariama

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The native name of a grallatorial bird of South America, the seriema.
2. n. [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.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (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.
2. n. the type genus of the Cariamidae, consisting only of the Cariama cristata, also called the seriema.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the type genus of the Cariamidae comprising only the crested cariama