. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy. the Rio Negro I conversed with one of these men,now in extreme old age. The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as its On 1 I found here a species of cactus, described by Professor Henslow, under thename of Opuntia Darwinii (Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. p. 466), which VIII THE GUAXACO 175 the arid plains a few black beetles (Heteromera) might be seenslowly crawling about, and occasionally a lizard da
. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy. the Rio Negro I conversed with one of these men,now in extreme old age. The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as its On 1 I found here a species of cactus, described by Professor Henslow, under thename of Opuntia Darwinii (Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. p. 466), which VIII THE GUAXACO 175 the arid plains a few black beetles (Heteromera) might be seenslowly crawling about, and occasionally a lizard darted fromside to side. Of birds we have three carrion hawks, and in thevalleys a few finches and insect-feeders. An ibis (Theristicusmelanops—a species said to be found in central Africa) is notuncommon on the most desert parts : in their stomachs I foundgrasshoppers, cicadas, small lizards, and even At onetime of the year these birds go in flocks, at another in pairs; theircry is very loud and singular, like the neighing of the guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quadrupedof the plains of Patagonia ; it is the South American represent-. OPUNTIA DARWIMI. ative of the camel of the East. It is an elegant animal in astate of nature, with a long slender neck and fine legs. It isvery common over the whole of the temperate parts of the con-tinent, as far south as the islands near Cape Horn. It generallylives in small herds of from half a dozen to thirty in each ; buton the banks of the St. Cruz we saw one herd which must havecontained at least five hundred. They are generally wild and extremely wary. Mr. Stokes was remarkable by the irritability of the stamens, when I inserted either a piece ofstick or the end of my finger in the flower. The segments of the perianth alsoclosed on the pistil, but more slowly than the stamens. Plants of this family,generally considered as tropical, occur in North America {Lewis and Clarkes Travels,p. 221), in the sam
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