VIII 



THE GUAXACO 



175 



the arid plains a few black beetles (Heteromera) might be seen 

 slowly crawling about, and occasionally a lizard darted from 

 side to side. Of birds we have three carrion hawks, and in the 

 valleys a few finches and insect-feeders. An ibis (Theristicus 

 melanops — a species said to be found in central Africa) is not 

 uncommon on the most desert parts : in their stomachs I found 

 grasshoppers, cicada, small lizards, and even scorpions.^ At one 

 time of the year these birds go in flocks, at another in pairs ; their 

 cry is very loud and singular, like the neighing of the guanaco. 

 The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quadruped 

 of the plains of Patagonia ; it is the South American represent- 



OPUNTIA DARWINII. 



ative of the camel of the East. It is an elegant animal in a 

 state of nature, with a long slender neck and fine legs. It is 

 very common over the whole of the temperate parts of the con- 

 tinent, as far south as the islands near Cape Horn. It generally 

 lives in small herds of from half a dozen to thirty in each ; but 

 on the banks of the St. Cruz we saw one herd which must have 

 contained at least five hundred. 



They are generally wild and extremely wary. Mr. Stokes 



was remarkable by the irritability of the stamens, -when I inserted either a piece of 

 slick or the end of my finger in the flower. The segments of the perianth also 

 closed on the pistil, but more slowly than the stamens. Plants of this family, 

 generally considered as tropical, occur in North America {l.ciois and Clarke's Travels, 

 p. 221), in the same high latitude as here, namely, in both cases, in 47°. 



^ These insects were not uncommon beneath stones. I found one cannibal 

 scorpion quietly devouring another. 



