MAMMALIA. 959 
In many of their habits they are like sheep in a flock. Thus, 
when they see men approaching in several directions on horse- 
back, they soon become bewildered and know not which way to 
tun; this greatly facilitates the Indian method of hunting, for 
they are thus easily driven to a central poimt and encompassed. 
The Guwanacos readily take to the water ; several times at Port 
Valdes they were seen swimming from island to island. Byron, © 
in his Voyage, says he saw them drink salt water. Some of our 
officers likewise saw a herd apparently drinking the briny fluid 
from a salina near Cape Blanco. I imagine, in several parts of 
the country, if they do not drink salt water they drink none at 
all. In the middle of the day they frequently roll in the dust in 
saucer-shaped hollows. The males fought together. Herds 
sometimes appear to set out on exploring parties at Bahia Blanca, 
where within thirty miles of the coast these animals are extremely 
unfrequent. I one day saw the tracks of thirty or forty which 
had come im a direct line to a muddy salt-water creek ; they then 
must have perceived that they were approaching the sea, for 
they had wheeled with the regularity of cavalry, and had returned 
back in as straight a line as they had advanced. The Guanaco 
has a singular habit, which to me is quite inexplicable, namely 
that on successive days they drop them dung on the same defined 
heap. I saw one of these heaps which was eight feet in diame- 
ter, and was composed of a large quantity. This habit, accord- 
mg to M. D’Orbigny, is common to all the species of the genus; 
it is very useful to the Peruvian Indians, who use the dung in 
fact, and are thus saved the trouble of collecting it. i 
The Guanaco appear to have favourite spots for lymg down to 
die, on the banks of the St. Cruz, in certain circumscribed spaces, 
which are generally bushy and all near the river; the ground 
was actually white with bones; on one such spot I counted between 
ten and twenty heads. I particularly examined the bones; they 
did not appear, as some scattered ones which I had seen, gnawed 
or broken, as if dragged together by beasts of prey. The animal 
in most cases must have crawled, before dying, beneath and 
among the bushes. M. Bynoe informed me, that during a former 
voyage he observed the same circumstance on the banks of the 
Rio Gallegos. I do not at all understand the reason of this, but 
I may observe that the wounded Guanacos at the St. Cruz inva- 
riably walked towards the river.—Darwin, Journ. 168. 
** Colour various, often variegated. Domestic. 
Almost every person who has lived where these animals abound 
consider there are two or more kinds found in the domesticated 
state, and they are all distinct from the two wild kinds already 
noticed. They will not allow that they are like the long-legged 
