1833.J HABITS OF THE GUANACO. 159 



Valdes they were seen swimming from island to island. Byron, in 

 Ms voyage, says he saw them drinking salt water. Some of our 

 officers likewise saw a herd apparently drinking the briny fluid 

 from a salina near Cape Blanco. I imagine in several parts of the 

 country, if they do not drink salt water, they drink none at all. In 

 the middle of the clay they frequently roll in the dust, in saucer- 

 shaped hollows. The males fight together; two one day passed 

 quite close to me, squealing and trying to bite each other; and 

 several were shot with their hides deeply scored. Herds sometimes 

 appear to set out on exploring parties : at Bahia Blanca, where, 

 within thirty miles of the coast, these animals are extremely unfre- 

 quent, I one day saw the tracks of thirty or forty, which had come 

 in a direct line to a muddy salt-water creek. They then must have 

 perceived that they were approaching the sea, for they had wheeled 

 with the regularity of cavalry, and had returned back in as straight 

 a line as they had advanced. The guanacos have one singular 

 habit, which is to me quite inexplicable ; namely, that on successive 

 days they drop their diing in the same defined heap. I saw one of 

 these heaps which was eight feet in diameter, and was composed of 

 a large quantity. This habit, according to M. A. d'Orbigny, is 

 common to all the species of the genus ; it is very useful to the 

 Peruvian Indians, who use the dung for fuel, and are thus saved 

 the trouble of collecting it. 



The guanacos appear to have favourite spots for lying down to 

 die. On the banks of the St. Cruz, in certain circumscribed spaces, 

 which were generally bushy and all near the river, the ground was 

 actually white with bones. On one such spot I counted between 

 ten and twenty heads. I particularly examined the bones ; they 

 did not appear, as some scattered ones which I had seen, gnawed 

 or broken, as if dragged together by beasts of prey. The animals 

 in most cases must have crawled, before dying, beneath and amongst 

 the bushes. Mr. Bynoe informs me that during a former voyage 

 he observed the same circumstance on the banks of the Rio Gallegos. 

 I do not at all understand the reason of this, but I may observe, 

 that the wounded guanacos at the St. Cruz invariably walked to- 

 wards the river. At St. Jago in the Cape de Verd islands, I 

 remember having seen in a ravine a retired corner covered with 

 bones of the goat ; we at the time exclaimed that it was the burial- 

 ground of all the goats in the island. I mention these trifling 

 circumstances, becaiise in certain cases they might explain the 



