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



is their habit of resorting to one particular spot at the approach of death ; 

 one of these dying-places being situated on the Santa Cruz River where the 

 valley is overgrown with dense thicket, beneath which the moribund 

 animals crawl to expire. In such situations the ground is covered with the 

 bones of countless numbers of individuals. The origin and object of this 

 singular habit is difficult in the extreme to conceive. 



Guanaco are generally hunted with dogs by mounted men, but they 

 may also be stalked. Lady Florence Dixie, who also bears witness to the 

 tenacity of life displayed by these animals when wounded, gives the fol- 

 lowing account of some ot the difficulties encountered in guanaco-stalking. 

 "We had not gone far," writes her ladyship, "when we heard a slirill 

 neigh close by, and looking round we saw a guanaco standing on the crest 

 oi a hill overlooking the valley. He had scarcely uttered his cry when it 

 was repeated at a little distance off by another watchful sentinel, and then 

 they both slowly cantered off, looking back at us as they went along, 

 and neighing loudly at intervals. The herd meanwhile, warned of the 

 approach of danger, leisurely trotted up the escarpment on the other side 

 of the valley, and as leisurely disappeared over the plain." 



THE VICUGNA 



[Lciiiia vicugna) 



(Plate VIII. Fig. 2) 



This smaller relative of the guanaco was named by Molina in his 

 Ncitiiriil History of Chili, published in the year 1782. The leading features 

 by which the vicugna is distinguished from the guanaco having been 

 already referred to, they need not be mentioned a second time. The 

 present animal is exclusively an inhabitant of the high Cordillera, where 

 it is restricted to the south of Ecuador, Peru, and Northern and Central 



