LLAMAS. 415 



geographical range of this species is very wide, extending from the lofty mountains 

 of Ecuador and Peru, where it is found in company with the vicunia, to the plains 

 of Patagonia and the islands of Tierra-del-Fuego. 



In the mountains the habits of the guanaco appear to be very 



similar to those of the vicunia, but it is not unfrequently seen in 

 larger flocks, which may occasionally reach as many as one hundred or even five 

 hundred head. The pairing-season occurs in August and September, and the young 

 are born ten or eleven months afterwards. Darwin states that these animals 

 are very wild and wary, and that frequently the first evidence of their presence in 

 the neighbourhood of the hunter is their loud, neighing alarm-cry, which makes 

 itself heard at a great distance. If the hunter looks attentively, he will then, 

 writes Darwin, "probably see the herd standing in a line on the side of some 

 distant hill. On approaching nearer, a few more squeals are given, and off they set 

 at an apparently slow but really quick canter, along some narrow beaten track to 

 a neighbouring hill. If, however, by chance he abruptly meets a single animal, or 

 several together, they will generally stand motionless and intently gaze at him, 

 then perhaps move on a few yards, turn round, and look again." The writer then 

 proceeds to give instances of their extreme curiosity, and adds that they are easily, 

 domesticated, and in the wild state have no notion of defending themselves. He 

 continues that " guanacos take readily to the water ; several times at Port Valdes. 

 they were seen swimming from island to island. Byron, in his voyage, says he 

 sa\v 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 hi several 

 parts of the country if they do not drink salt-water they do not drink at all. In 

 the middle of the day they frequently roll in the dust, in saucer-shaped hollows. 

 The males fight together ; tw r o 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 unfrequent, 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 in as 

 straight a line as they had advanced." 



The most singular circumstance connected with the guanacos is 



their habit of resorting to certain particular spots when they feel 

 their end approaching. On this point Darwin observes that "on the banks of 

 the Santa Cruz, in certain circumscribed spaces, which were generally bushy and 

 always 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." Although mentioning that 

 wounded guanacos invariably make their way towards the river, Darwin did 

 not attempt any explanation of this strange habit. A later observer, Mr. W. H. 

 Hudson, after stating that this habit is only developed among the guanacos of 

 Southern Patagonia, suggests, however, that it is due to an inherited instinct^ 



