148 NATURAL SCIENCE. 



APRIL, 

 1892. 



measured motion." Still more extraordinary is, however, the perfor- 

 mance of the spur- winged lapwings, which live in pairs. One such 

 pair may frequently be visited by a single bird from another pair, 

 upon which the stranger takes the lead in a triangular kind of dance, 

 of which the description is so ludicrous that we must refer the reader 

 to the original. 



The twentieth chapter is a long and interesting one on the 

 biography of that curious social rodent, the Vizcacha, formerly the 

 commonest of all the mammals of the Pampas, Recently, however, 

 a war of extermination has been waged against these little creatures 

 by the landowners — presumably on account of the harm done by their 

 warrens, the viscachera of the natives — which has been only too 

 successful from their point of view. Mr. Hudson's account of these 

 animals, when in their full development, should thus be of especial 

 value to naturalists ; and his excellent illustration (reproduced) gives 

 a good idea of the general appearance of the " viscachera " when fully 

 inhabited. 



In the chapter on the guanaco, or huanaco — one of the llamas — 

 the author fully confirms Darwin's account of its unique and inexpli- 

 cable habit of seeking a spot crowded with the bones of its prede- 

 cessors when about to die. This habit, says our author, seems 

 " less like an instinct of one of the inferior creatures than the super- 

 stitious observance of human beings, who have knowledge of death, 

 and believe in a continued existence after dissolution." 



Such are a few of what strike us as the more interesting points 

 in Mr. Hudson's volume. When, however, he has to deal with a 

 work which, like that before us, is teeming with interest on almost 

 every page, the reviewer's task is one of difficulty from an embarras 

 de richesses, and we can, therefore, do no more than heartily commend 

 " The Naturahst in La Plata " to the attention of all our readers. 



R. Lydekker. 



