14 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Llama : some are pure white, with one or two patches of 

 black : some are entirely black : while others are dark 

 brown ; but black is the predominant colour. The wool 

 is thick- set and extremely fine and soft, and covers 

 the whole head, neck, body and legs, leaving only the 

 face bare. The wool reaches in some instances to 17 

 inches in length, and sometimes exceeds even that, which 

 is perhaps rather more than the average, which is attained 

 in about two years after shearing. The full-fleeced Alpaca 

 is so thickly clothed with wool from head to foot, that he 

 may at once be known from the rest of the group ; his 

 long neck appears of great bulk from the quantity of its 

 clothing; indeed, no animal could be provided with a 

 warmer dress, which in some cases almost touches the 

 ground. The Alpaca is perfectly harmless and inoffensive. 



"As the question of the age of the Stag or Eed Deer 

 (Cerus elaphus) has been very much qucestio vexata, and 

 there are but few instances in which it can be spoken of 

 with any degree of accuracy, I am inclined to think it 

 might be of some use to state what is known here relative 

 to one of our Stags, and who has latterly been honoured 

 with a place in the National collection at the British 

 Museum. ' Old Billy,' by which name he was well-known 

 to all in this neighbourhood, was bred in the park at 

 Knowsley in 1819, and at the usual age of three years was 

 caught and sent up (1822) for the supply of the hunting 

 paddocks kept by my late father for that sport at the 

 Oaks, Surrey, and after being regularly hunted during 

 some years without any injury being sustained by him, 

 had the singular good fortune of returning to his native 

 haunts in this park, where for many seasons he continued 

 the acknowledged head of all the Deer, though he was not 

 without a frequent struggle for the dominion with some of 



