Page:The birds of Tierra del Fuego - Richard Crawshay.djvu/46

xxvi lighter build and more graceful, reminding one much of a Deer; and also of a Sheep, in the shape and carriage of its ears and in its cinnamon-brown and snow-white fleece of the finest wool. What the Bison was to the Red Man of North America, the Guanaco is to the Ona of Tierra del Fuego and to the Tehuelch of Patagonia—food, clothing, and equipment. Short of Man, as a feature in the landscape and for its remarkable personality, this creature stands out above all others. No hill-top commanding the surrounding country seems complete without a Guanaco sentry, of which perhaps only the head and neck are visible, standing in relief against the sky-line. Often does one hear the weird quavering neigh, borne to one up or down or across the wind, without being able to distinguish the familiar form. If directly approached. Guanacos usually make off in headlong flight. If, however, no notice be taken of them, they remain where they are; or, impelled by their extraordinary curiosity, come to one, and follow one in a parallel line for miles, within close rifle shot, lolloping along at their easy graceful canter, and indulging in those grotesque antics for which these creatures are notorious.

The Guanaco is in appearance the very personification of gentleness—with its innocent-looking form possessed of no apparent means of offence, its lustrous Gazelle-like eye, and its soft woolly fleece. No animal could be more deceptive. In a wild state amongst its own kind, and in captivity—no matter how forbearingly treated—it is the least tractable of any creature known to me. A pair of wild Guanacos can often be seen or heard engaged in desperate combat, biting and tearing and rolling over one another on the ground, uttering their gurgling bubbling cries of rage. Of a pair so engaged. I shot one whose tail had then been bitten off in the encounter. In confinement, the Guanaco charges one with his chest or rears up on his hind legs to strike one with his fore-feet, besides biting and spitting up the contents of the stomach.

There is, then, a gigantic Fox (Canis magellanicus), as large