^^66 Game of FAirope, W. & N. Asia & America 



strikins); ; and at an earlier epoch of the earth's history, when gigantic 

 ground-sloths, huge solid-shelled armadillos, and other monsters abounded 

 on the pampas, the contrast must have been even more remarkable. 



The pampas deer is distinguished from all its kindred by the strong 

 musky odour exhaled by the full-grown bucks, which may be a provision 

 to enable these animals to ascertain the whereabouts of their fellows on the 

 trackless pampas. The scent is perceptible for a very long distance ; and 

 the horseman riding across the pampas will frequently be made aware by 

 this means of the neighbourhood of this deer when none are within sight. 



The guazuti, as this deer is called in some parts of South America, is 

 found on open plains from Brazil to Northern Patagonia, inhabiting all 

 the pampas of the Argentine, and extending even into the Chaco country 

 in the neighbourhood of Santa Fe, as well as into Paraguay and Uruguay. 

 From many districts of the Argentine it has, however, now more or less 

 completely disappeared, and the same is the case with regard to Uruguay. 

 Mr. O. V. Aplin, writing in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 

 London for March 1894, has the following remarks on this deer in 

 Uruguay : — 



"In the neighbourhood of Santa Elena this species — the gama, as it is 

 here called — has been exterminated, with the exception of a small herd 

 preserved in a distant part of the camp [open country] belonging to that 

 estancia [estate], in the neighbourhood of the Arroyos de Monzon and 

 Grande. The herd in 1892-93 consisted, so far as was known, of about a 

 dozen does and seven bucks. On that part of the Rio Negro which 1 

 visited it is also rare, but in some parts of Florida [Uruguay] it is still 

 numerous. One day at the end of January I rode up pretty close to a 

 buck with a nice head, and two does, which had been feeding in a low 

 green pajonale. They were then of a warm tawny, with large and con- 

 spicuous light -coloured stern-marks. The peculiar strong musky odour 

 (rather like cat) was apparent after they had cleared out." 



