PATAGONIA AND THE PATAGONIANS. 



419 



The guanaco is the characteristic quadruped of the plains of Patagonia, 

 where it is no less useful to man than the wild reindeer to the savage hunters 

 of the north. It ranges from the Cordillera of Peru as far south as the islands 

 near Cape Horn, but it appears to be more frequent on the plains of South 

 Patagonia than anywhere else. It is of greater size than the llama, and re- 

 sembles it so much that it was suj^posed to be the wild variety, until Tschudi, 

 in his " Fauna Peruana," pointed out the specific difference between both. 

 The guanaco is a more elegant animal, with a long, slender neck and fine legs ; 

 its fleece is shorter and less fine ; its color is brown, the under parts being 

 whitish. It generally lives in small herds of from half a dozen to thirty in each ; 

 but on the banks of the Santa Cruz Mr. Darwin saw one herd which contained at 

 least five hundred. Though extremely shy and wary, it is no match for the 

 cunning of the savage ; and, before the horse was introduced into Patagonia, 

 man most probably could not have existed in those arid plains without the 

 guanaco. It easily takes to the water, and this accounts for its presence on the 

 eastern islands of Fuegia, where it has been followed by the puma, or Ameri- 

 can lion, who likewise pursues it on the plateaus of the Cordillera, 12,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. 



The Brazilian fox ( Canis Azarm) is also met with as far as the strait. It 

 is somewhat smaller than our fox, but more robustly built. In Patagonia it 

 preys chiefly upon the small rodents, with which the land, in spite of its sterili- 

 ty, is perhaps more richly stocked than any other country in the world. Among 

 these the tucutuco ( Ctenoinys magellanica), which may briefly be described as 

 a gnawer with the habits of a mole, is one of the most remarkable. It abounds 

 near the strait, where the sandy 23lain is one vast burrow of these creatures. 

 This curious animal makes, when beneath the ground, a very peculiar noise, con- 

 sisting of a short nasal grunt, monotonously repeated about four times in quick 

 succession, the name tucutuco being given in imitation of the sound. Where 

 the animal is abundant, it may be heard at all times of the day, and sometimes 

 directly beneath one's feet. The tucutuco is nocturnal in its habits ; its food 

 consists chiefly of roots, the search after which seems to be the cause of its bur- 

 rowing. 



Among the indigenous quadrupeds of Patagonia we find, moreover, a spe- 

 cies of agouti {Dasyprocta patago7iica), which in some measure represents our 

 hare, but is about twice the size, and has only three toes on its hind feet ; the 

 elegant long-eared mara {DolicJiotls patagonicus), which, unlike most burrowing 

 animals^ wanders, commonly two or three together, for miles from its home ; the 

 DidelpMs Azarce, a species of opossum ; and the jDichy [Dasypus minutiis)^ a 

 small armadillo, which extends as far south as 50° lat. 



It would be vain to seek among the Patagonian birds for the splendid 

 plumage of the tropical feathered tribes ; their colors are simple and monoto- 

 nous, as those of the naked plains which are their home. Many birds of prey 

 of the warmer regions of America likewise frequent the arid wastes of Pata- 

 gonia. When a horse chances to perish from fatigue or thirst, the turkey-buz- 

 zard ( Yultur aura ?) begins to feast upon its carcass, and then the carrancha 

 {Polyhorus hrasiliensis) and the chimango [Polyhorus cJiimango) pick its bones 



