124 CANIS. 



the feet and sometimes the muzzle, though this is also sometimes 

 black. The animal may be of an uniformly light reddish or 

 yellowish brown, save that it is paler beneath, on the outside of 

 the forelegs, below the elbow, as well as on the inside of the 

 limbs and on the cheeks." 



In reference to the vexed question as to whether the Warrigal 

 is an indigene or has been brought hither through human instru- 

 mentality, we consider, notwithstanding that the greater number 

 of authors incline to the latter theory, that the recognition by 

 Prof. McCoy of fossil remains, in no wise differing from those of 

 recent individuals, and contemporaneous with similar remains of 

 Thylacoleo, Diprotodott, &c., sets this question at rest, and goes 

 far towards proving that this species is indigenous to continental 

 Australia, and was an inhabitant thereof prior to its colonization 

 by man, no human remains of such antiquity having as yet been 

 discovered. 



As this question is so intimately connected with that of the 

 origin of the domestic dog and its many varieties, no apology is 

 needed for quoting largely from Prof. McCoy's article (Prod. 

 Palaeont. Viet. dec. vii. pp. 7 - 10). He says : 



" The origin of the domestic dog is a question of great difficulty 

 and interest, which it has been suggested can be best investigated 

 by a study of the Dog known to the lowest types of the human 

 race ; and the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia were thought 

 to afford these conditions. On the other hand the remarkable 

 absence of the higher forms of Mammalian Quadrupeds in Aus- 

 tralia was supposed to render it highly probable that the Dingo 

 was not really a native of the place, but was brought at some 

 remote period from some other country by human savage races 

 arriving to constitute the population of Australia. Taking the 

 case of the Dingo, it was certain that the native dogs of con- 

 tinental Asia were not clearly related, to the extent of specific 

 identity, with the Australian one, nor could any near analogies 

 be found elsewhere ; while on the other hand the facts are beyond 

 dispute : (1st) that the Dingo is singularly averse to domestication 

 and man's society when compared with other dogs ; (2nd) that it 

 is extremely abundant, with little or no variation, over the whole 

 of Australia ; and (3rd) that the further you go from human 

 haunts, near the coast, into the desert interior, the more numerous 

 do the Dingoes appear, indicating that the species was a really 

 indigenous one." 



And again, alluding to its contemporaneity, mentioned above, 

 with the great fossil Mammals of Australia, he remarks " that 

 the Dingo was really one of the most ancient of the indigenous 

 mammals of the country, and abounded as now most probably 

 before man himself appeared Our present species, 



