This habit, according to M.A.
d'Orbigny, is common to all the species of the genus; it is very useful to the Peruvian Indians, who use the dung for fuel, and are thus saved the trouble of collecting it.
The guanacos appear to have favourite spots for lying down to die.
On the banks of the St.Cruz, in certain circumscribed spaces, which were generally bushy and all near the river, the ground was actually white with bones.

On one such spot I 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 beasts of prey.

The animals in most cases must have crawled, before dying, beneath and amongst the bushes.
Mr.Bynoe informs me that during a former 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 guanacos at the St.Cruz invariably walked towards the river.