MAMMALIA. 255 



In confinement, the Vicuna and the Alpaca often have the 

 lower cutting- teeth elongated and projecting, giving the face a 

 bulldog-like appearance. I have not observed this in the Gua- 

 naco or Llama. 



The Alpaca may be a tame, heavy variety of the Vicuna, as it 

 has the same short, hairy head ; but the neck is thicker, and the 

 whole animal heavier, and the hair of the head longer and more 

 bushy, and it wants the pectoral fringe. 



All the tribe have the disagreeable habit of spitting, when irri- 

 tated, a quantity of half-digested cud ; the Llama and Alpaca do 

 this only when much annoyed ; the Guanaco, on the contrary, 

 upon the slightest occasion. 



Unlike Sheep, these animals, in confinement at least, do not 

 shed their coat. 



Though the Llama, Alpaca and Vicuna are generally harmless 

 and inoffensive, the males will very readily quarrel with each 

 other. 



Mr. Walton, a zealous advocate for the naturalization of the 

 Alpaca, in his little book on the subject, published by Blackwood 

 in 1844, apprehends better success will be the result when the 

 Alpacas are turned on to waste and mountain lands than when 

 they are kept on richer pasture and well cared for. But the fact 

 that few, if any, specimens are now living in Great Britain be- 

 side those at Knowsley, does not favour this conclusion. 



The Llama, the Alpaca and the Vicugna, are exclusively confined 

 to the colder and more elevated regions of the Peruvian Andes ; 

 the G-uanaco has a wider geographic range, extending to the 

 plains of Patagonia, and even the southernmost extremity of the 

 continent. The Llama inhabits the high valleys of the Peru- 

 Bolivian Andes, its favourite region being the valley of the lake 

 of Titicaca. It was the only beast of burthen possessed by the 

 Aborigines; hence we find it wherever the Incas carried their 

 conquests and civilization, from the equator to beyond the 

 southern tropic. It is still extensively employed by the Indians 

 as a beast of burthen, and its wool, though coarse, is used by the 

 Aborigines. Like all domestic animals, it varies in colour; its 

 flesh is nauseous, black, and ill-tasted. 



The Alpaca or Paco, a gentle and handsome animal, although 

 more closely allied to the Llama than any of its congeners, is a di- 

 stinct species ; it inhabits at still more elevated places than the 

 Llama, its favourite haunts being on the streams descending from 

 the snowy peaks; it is only found in a domestic state; it is 

 reared for its wool, which is extremely fine, silky and long, and 

 which now bears a high price, from its introduction into some of 

 our finest woollen tissues. The Vicugna is only found in the 

 wild state, in the plains on the Andes, as high as 1500 feet; its 



