37^ Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



As already mentioned, the guanaco and vicugna are two of the most 

 characteristic of the few hxrge herbivorous mammals now inhabiting 

 South America. They do not, however, properly belong to the original 

 indigenous South American tauna, hut, like the deer and the tapirs, are 

 comparatively recent immigrants into the country from the north. This 

 is attested by the occurrence of the fossilised remains of numerous allied 

 extinct forms in the Tertiary formations of North America and the absence 

 of such from the corresponding deposits of Patagonia. 



The guanaco is considerably the larger of the two species, standing 

 about 4 feet in height at the shoulder, and measuring from 7 to 8 feet 

 in total length. An average-sized specimen will weigh between 180 and 

 200 pounds. In some specimens the face is nearly black, instead of the 

 usual grey. The most characteristic feature by which this species can be 

 distinguished from the vicugna is, however, the presence of bare pads, or 

 callosities, on the hocks. The head is, moreover, longer, and the skull 

 proportionately larger than in its smaller relative. 



The geographical range of the guanaco extends from the storm-swept 

 island of Tierra del Fuego and the adjacent islets, northwards through the 

 desolate wastes of Patagonia into Southern Argentina (where the animal 

 is almost exterminated), and also along the chain of the Andes into the 

 highlands of Peru and Bolivia. In spite of the fact that guanaco were seen 

 by Darwin swimming in the sea from islet to islet in the neighbourhood 

 of Port Valdez, in the Gulf of San Matias, it seems improbable that they 

 would be able to cross the stormy Strait of Magellan. And if this be so, 

 these animals must have reached South America from the north at a- time 

 when Tierra del Fuego was still united with the mainland. 



Accounts ot the habits of the wild guanaco and ot guanaco-hunting 

 have been given by several writers. Among these may be mentioned 

 Darwin in A Niitnrci/isfs Voyage; Dr. R. O. Cunningham in his work 

 entitled Natural History of the Strait of Magellan (1871) ; Lady Florence 



