Jan. 1828. LAREDO BAY—PORT FAMINE. 117 
Indians, furnished us with many additions to our zoological 
collection ; among them was a tiger-cat, which seemed, from 
the description, to be the Felis pajaros of the Encyclopédie 
Méthodique (the “ Chat de Pampa” of D’Azara). Maria gave 
me a very large bezoar stone, that was taken from the stomach 
of a guanaco. It is used medicinally by the Indians, as a 
remedy for bowel complaints.* 
Whilst we were at the anchorage before Cape Negro, Mr. 
Tarn and Mr. Wickham visited the lake at the back of Laredo 
Bay, and saw two swans, which, from the colour of their 
plumage, seemed to be the black-necked swan of the River 
Plata and of the Falkland Islands+ (Dom Pernettey, ii. p. 148). 
They brought on board with them a new species of duck, 
which is described in the proceedings of the Zoolugical Society 
as Anas specularis (Nob.), and a-small burrowing animal, of 
the rat tribe, that, from the character of its teeth, is probably 
of a genus not hitherto noted: it approaches nearest to F. 
Cuvier’s Helamys. 
We next anchored in Port Famine, where the tents, &c. 
were replaced in their former positions, the ship was unrigged 
and secured for the winter, and all hands set to work, prepar- 
ing the Adelaide for service. 
* The medicinal property of this intestinal concretion is well known 
wherever the animal is found. Maregrave, in his “ Tractatus topogra- 
phicus et meteorologicus Brasiliz,” folio, p. 36, says :—‘‘ Hee animalia 
(guanacoes) generant lapides Bezoares in sinu quodam ventriculi, qui 
maximi estimantur contra venena et febres malignos ad roborandum et 
refocillandum cor, aliosque affectus. Materia é qua generantur sunt herb 
insignis virtutis, quibus vescuntur nature instinctu ad sanitatem tuendum, 
aut morbos et venena superandum. Hi lapides inveniuntur in adultioribus 
hisce animalibus atque interdum tam grandes, ut unum in Italiam attu- 
lerim qui pendet uncias duas supra triginta.”—Mr. Thompson, on Intes- 
tinal Concretions. See his Syn. of Chemistry, iv. 576. 
+ Anser nigrocollis. Eneye. Méthod., art. Ornithol. 108. 
