28 



ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 



hides deeply scored. Herds appear sometimes to set out on exploring parties : at 

 Bahia Blanca, where within thirty miles of the coast these animals are extremely 

 scarce, 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 Guana- 

 coes have one singular habit, the motive of which is to me quite inexplicable, 

 namely, that on successive days they drop their dung on one defined heap. I 

 saw one of these heaps, which was eight feet in diameter, and necessarily was 

 composed of a large quantity. Frezier remarks on this habit as common to the 

 Guanaco as well as to the Llama ;* he says it is very useful to the Indians, who 

 use the dung for fuel, and are thus saved the trouble of collecting it. 



" The Guanacoes appear to have favourite spots for dying in. On the banks 

 of the Santa Cruz, the ground was actually white with bones in certain circum- 

 scribed spaces, which generally were bushy and all near the river. 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 a beast of prey. The animals in most cases, 

 must have crawled, before dying, beneath and amongst the bushes. Mr. Bynoe 

 informs me, that during the last voyage, he observed the same circumstances on 

 the banks of the Rio Gallegos. I do not at all understand the reason of this ; but I 

 may add, that the Guanacoes which were wounded on the plains near the Santa Cruz 

 invariably walked towards the river. This quadruped seems particularly liable to 

 contain in its stomach bezoar stones. The Indians who trade at the Rio Negro, 

 bring great numbers to sell as Remedios or quack medicines ; and I saw one old 

 man with a box quite full of them, large and small." — D. 



/ 



* D'Orbigny says, (vol. ii. p. 69,) that all the species of the genus have this habit. 



