Humble-Bees and other Matters. 1 59 



But what can we say of the common deer of the 

 pampas (Cervus campestris), the male of which gives 

 out an effluvium quite as far-reaching although not 

 so abominable in character as that of the Mephitis ? 

 It comes in disagreeable whiffs to the human 

 nostril when the perfumer of the wilderness is not 

 even in sight. Yet it is not a protection ; on the 

 contrary, it is the reverse, and, like the dazzling 

 white plumage so attractive to birds of prey, a 

 direct disadvantage, informing all enemies for 

 leagues around of its whereabouts. It is not, there- 

 fore, strange that wherever pumas are found, deer 

 are never very abundant ; the only wonder is that, 

 like the ancient horse of America, they have not 

 become extinct. 



The gauchos of the pampas, however, give a 

 reason for the powerful smell of the male deer; 

 and, after some hesitation, I have determined to 

 set it down here, for the reader to accept or reject, 

 as he thinks proper. I neither believe nor dis- 

 believe it ; for although I do not put great faith 

 in gaucho natural history, my own observations 

 have not infrequently confirmed statements of 

 theirs, which a sceptical person would have regarded 

 as wild indeed. To give one instance : I heard a 

 gaucho relate that while out riding he had been 

 pursued for a considerable distance by a large 

 spider; his hearers laughed at him for a romancer ; 

 but as I myself had been attacked and pursued, 

 both when on foot and on horseback, by a large 

 wolf-spider, common on the pampas, I did not join 

 in the laugh. They say that the effluvium of 0. 

 campestris is abhorrent to snakes of all kinds, just 



