THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
comes on. For about twenty days it is as naked as if it had been clean- 
shaven from head to tail; and then it is exceedingly sensitive to cold and 
rain. But by degrees the hair grows again; at first it is extremely 
fine and beautiful, and when once more it is long and thick, the camel can 
brave the severest frost. It delights then in marching against the north 
wind, or standing on the top of a hill to be beaten by the tempest and breathe 
the freezing air.” 
In the huanaco and vicunia of South America, we have the 
survivors of an original cameloid stock, as has been related, — 
humpless, long-cared camels of small 
stature, which carry their heads erect 
and behave more like antelopes or 
deer, whose place they take in the 
southern continent. 
The huanaco occurs wherever open 
districts and a temperate climate 
coincide, from the lofty valleys of 
Ecuador down the whole length of 
the Andes, all over Patagonia, and on 
the rough and grassy islands south 
of the Straits of Magellan. In the 
mountains it travels in small bands, 
and has the same agile and wary 
manners as the vicunia; but on the 
Copyrt., N.Y. Zodl. Sve. Sanvorn Phot. plains it naturally gathers into herds, 
nT SEER especially during the pairing season, 
at its height in August. There these animals seem to thrive 
as well upon the thorny and bitter herbage of lower Patagonia 
as upon the rich pastures of the Andean valleys or the Argentine 
pampas. 
“Over a large part of its habitat none but salt water is to be had, and 
this it drinks readily. One very curious circumstance in its history is its 
habit of resorting to certain places in river valleys when it feels ill, so that 
nearly all which die a natural death seem to do so at these spots. This has 
been plausibly explained * as due to the influence of an instinct inherited 
338 
