I70 THE GUANACO. [chap. viii. 



St Joseph's Bay, on the coast of Patagonia, a small 

 sottlement was made ; but during one Sunday the Indians 

 *nade an attack and massacred the whole party, excepting 

 two men, who remained captives during many years. At 

 che Rio Negro I conversed with one of these men, now in 

 extreme old age. 



The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as Its flora.* On 

 the arid plains a few black beetles {Heteromera) might be 

 seen slowly crawling about, and occasionally a lizard darted 

 from side to side. Of birds we have three carrion hawks, 

 and in the valleys a few finches and Insect-feeders. An ibis 

 {Theristicus melanops — a species said to be found In Central 

 Africa) is not uncommon on the most desert parts : in their 

 stomachs I found grasshoppers, cicadas, small lizards, and 

 even scorpions, t At one time of the year these birds go in 

 flocks, at another in pairs ; their cry is very loud and 

 singular, like the neighing of the guanaco. 



The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quad- 

 ruped of the plains of Patagonia ; it is the South American 

 representative of the camel of the East. It Is an elegant 

 animal in a state of nature, with a long slender neck and 

 fine legs. It is very common over the whole of the temperate 

 parts of the continent, as far south as the Islands near Cape 

 Horn. It generally lives In small herds of from half a 

 dozen to thirty In each ; but on the banks of the St. Cruz 

 we saw one herd which must have contained at least five 

 hundred. 



They are generally wild and extremely wary. Mr. Stokes 

 told me, that he one day saw through a glass a herd of 

 these anirnals which evidently had been frightened, and 

 were running away at full speed, although their distance 

 was so great that he could not distinguish them with his 

 naked eye. The sportsman frequently receives the first 

 notice of their presence, by hearing from a long distance 

 their peculiar shrill neighing note of alarm. If he then 

 looks attentively, he will probably see the herd standing in 



* I foood here a species of cactus, described by Professor Henslow, under 

 the name of O/nentia Dartmnii {Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i., 

 p. 466), which was remarkable by the irritability of the stamens, when I 

 inserted either a piece of stick or the end of my finger in the flower. The 

 acgtnents of the perianth also closed on the pistil, but more slowly than the 

 stamens. Plants of this family, generally considered as tropical, occur in 

 North America ("Lewis and Clarke's Travels," p. 221), in the same high 

 Jatitade as here, namely, in both cases, in 47°. 



t These insects were not uncommon beneath stones. I found one cannibal 

 •OQTpion quietly devouring another. 



