259 



In many of their habits they are like sheep in a flock. Thus, 

 when they see men approaching in several directions on horse* 

 back, they soon become bewildered and know not which way to 

 run ; this greatly facilitates the Indian method of hunting, for 

 they are thus easily driven to a central point and encompassed. 



The Guanacos readily take to the water ; several times at Port 

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

 in his Voyage., says he saw them drink salt w^ater. Some of our 

 officers likewise saw a herd apparently drinking the briny fluid 

 from a saliua 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 day they frequently roll in the dust in 

 saucer-shaped hollows. The males fought together. 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 

 back in as straight a line as they had advanced. The Guanaco 

 has a singular habit, which to me is quite inexplicable, namely 

 that on successive days they drop their dung on the same defined 

 heap. I saw one of these heaps which was eight feet in diame- 

 ter, and was composed of a large quantity. This habit, accord- 

 ing to M. D'Orbigny, is common to all the species of the genus; 

 it is very useful to the Peruvian Indians, who use the dung in 

 fact, and are thus saved the trouble of collecting it. 



The Guanaco appear to have favourite spots for lying down to 

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

 which are 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 animal 

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

 among the bushes. M. Bynoe informed 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 inva- 

 riably walked towards the river. Darwin, Journ. 168. 



** Colour various, often variegated. Domestic. 



Almost every person who has lived where these animals abound 



consider there are two or more kinds found in the domesticated 



state, and they are all distinct from the two wild kinds already 



noticed. They will not allow that they are like the long-legged 



