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Show ZOOLOGY OF TilE VOYAGE OF TIIE BEAGLE. 28 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 retumed back in as straight a line, as they had advanced, The Guanacoes 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 Temarks 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 circumscribed spaces, which generally were bushy and all near the river. On one such spot 1 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 mo t 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. 1 do not at all understand the reason of thi s ; 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 Hio 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. MAMMALIA. 29 FAMILY-CERVIDJE. CERVUS CAMPES'!'RIS. Cervus campestris p (]; . . . . ---- ' • ~Vte1, m D!Ct. des Sc. Nat. VII 4 . --, CuVIer Oss. Foss IV "' . p. 84. Guazuti, A zara "Nat I II' . , p. ol. PI. 8. f. 46.• ' ura !Story of the Qu dr d vol. i. p. 185. a upe s of Paraguay." W · P · I Iunter's translation, ---, French translation vol · ' • !. p. 77. BaEiSrIsD Efs skins of th. . IS species of stag I find . fute a o suhffi~r~s, wl hich, together with a' pair beio:ng_Mr.tDarwin's collection, three c1en t y compl t . . mg o one of the k · . appenda e e senes to illustrate the d. ffi s ms, constt-ges assume, as the animal increa . . I erent forms which these ses m Size. .I 2 .J Scale oft" clve ln chct. The above four sketches, which are 11 • convey a clear idea of the [io. d ~ drawn to the same scale will help t Th rms, an relattve pro t' f ' o e most simple horn (fio- 1 . por wns, o these l10rns. long, which is slightly archet~u~~~~~d:stst~ of a .beam, eight and a half inches and a half inches from the apex At ~n h constderably compressed about two antler which projects forwards ~nd upo;:r~t:c from the base there is a small bmw In the next horn (fi . 2 ) th . . single small snag, abo~lt e~~ai . ~re IS thle same small bi·ow antler, bLtt there is a 1 m size to t 1e brow a n tl er, wh 't c h I.S directed back'- Da•n F·i gurhe s 47 and 48 of M. CuY.l er' s work represe t h · vm, t at I cannot help suspecting they belon<> t n omsb so unl~ko either of those brought over by l\fr. " 0 some ot or spec1cs of stag. |