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Show 196 PA1'AGOXlA. Dec. 1833. plays strange antics, such as throwing up his feet in the .air, they will almost always approach by degrees to rec~nnmtre him. It was an artifice that was repeatedly practised by our sportsmen with success, and it had moreover the advantage of allowing several shots to be fired, which were all taken as parts of the performance. On the mountains of rrierra del Fuego, and in other places, I have more than once seen a guanaco, on being approached, not only neigh and squeal, but prance and leap about in the most ridiculous manner, apparently in defiance as a challenge. These animals are very easily domesticated, and I have seen some thus kept near th~ houses, although at large on their native plains. They are in this state very bold, and readily attack a man, by striking him from behind with both knees. It is asserted, that the motive for these attacks is jealousy on account of their females. The wild guanacoes, however, have no idea of defence ; even a single dog will secure one of these large animals, till the huntsman can come up. In many of their habits they are like sheep in a flock. Thus when they see men approaching in several directions on horseback, they soon became bewildered, and know not which way to run. This greatly facilitates the Indian method of hunting, for they are thus easily driven to a central point, and are encompassed. The guanacoes readily take to the water : several times at Port Valdes they were seen swimming from island to island. Byron, in his voyage, says he saw them drinking salt water. Some of our officers likewise saw a herd apparently drinking the briny fluid from a salina near Cape Blanco. I imagine in several parts of the country, if they do not drink salt water, they drink none at all. In the middle of the day, they frequently roll in the dust, in saucer-shaped hollows. rrhe males fight together ; two one day passed quite close to me, squealing and trying to bite each other ; and several were shot with their hides deeply scored. Herds sometimes appear to set out on exploring-parties : at Bahia Blanca, where, within thirty miles of the coast, these animals are extremely unfrequent, I one day saw the tracks of thirty or forty, which had come in a direct line Dec. 1833 .. GVANACO. 197 to . a muddy salt-water creek. They then must h ~~~ ceived th~t they were approaching the sea, for they had ~heeled with the regularity of cavalry, and had returned back m as straig. ht a line as. they . had advanced · The bo-uanacoes have one smgular habit, whiCh is to me quite inexplicable; namely, that on successive days they drop their dung in the same. defi?-ed heap. I saw one of these heaps which was eight feet I~ dtamete:, and necessarily was composed of a large quantity. Frez~er 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. O.n the banks. of the St. Cruz, the ground was actually white With bones, m certain circumscribed spaces, which were generally bushy and all near the river. On one such spot I cou.nted between ten and. twenty heads. I particularly examme~ the bones; they d1d not appear, as some scattered ones whiCh I had seen, gnawed or broken, as if dragged together by beasts of prey. The animals in most cases must have crawled, ~efore dying, beneath and amongst th~ bushes. Mr. Bynoe mforms me that during the last voyage, he observed the same circumstance on the banks of the Rio Gallegos. I do not at all understand the reason of this but I may observe, that the wounded guanacoes at the St. Cruz invariably walked towards the river. At St. Jago in th~ Ca~e de Verd islands I remember having· seen in a retired ravme a corner under a cliff, where numerous goats' bones were collected : we at the time exclaimed, that it was the burial-ground of all the goats in the island. I mention th.ese triflin?" circumstances, because in certain cases they ~mght explam the occurrence of a number of uninjured bones ~~a cave, or buried under alluvial accumulations; and likeWise the cause, why certain mammalia are more commonly embedded than others in sedimentary deposits. Any great * D'Orbigny says ( vol. ii., p. 69) that all the species of the genus have this habit. |