io8 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



mile, and never recover its dam. The gaucho, who 

 is not merciful, frequently saves himself all trouble 

 and delay by knocking it senseless with a blow of 

 his whip-handle, and without checking his horse. 

 I have seen a lamb, about two days old, start up 

 from sleep, and immediately start off in pursuit of 

 a puffball about as big as a man's head, carried 

 past it over the smooth turf by the wind, and 

 chase it for a distance of five hundred yards, until 

 the dry ball was brought to a stop by a tuft of 

 coarse grass. This blundering instinct is quickly 

 laid aside when the lamb has learned to distinguish 

 its dam from other objects, and its dam's voice from 

 other sounds. When four or five days old it will 

 start from sleep, but instead of rushing blindly away 

 after any receding object, it first looks about it, and 

 will then recognize and run to its dam. 



I have often been struck with the superiority of 

 the pampa or creolla the old native breed of sheep 

 in the greater vigour of the young when born over 

 the improved European varieties. The pampa 

 descends to us from the first sheep introduced into 

 La Plata about three centuries ago, and is a tall, 

 gaunt bony animal, with lean dry flesh, like venison, 

 and long straight wool, like goats' hair. In their 

 struggle for existence in a country subject to sudden 

 great changes of temperature, to drought, and fail- 

 ure of grass, they have in a great measure lost the 

 qualities which make the sheep valuable to man as 

 a food and wool-producing animal ; but on the 

 other hand they have to some extent recovered the 

 vigour of a wild animal, being hardy enough to 

 exist without any shelter, and requiring from their 



