332 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



the author observes that, in regard to the question whether the dingo 

 " is an indigene or has been brought hither tliroiigh human instru- 

 mentahty, we consider, notwithstanding that the greater number of 

 authors incHne to the latter theory, that the recognition by Professor 

 McCoy of fossil remains, in no wise differing from those of recent 

 individuals, and contemporaneous with similar remains of Thylacoles, 

 Dipvotodon, &c., sets the question at rest, and goes far towards proving 

 that the species is indigenous to continental Australia, and was an 

 inhabitant thereof prior to its colonisation by man, no human remains 

 of such antiquity having as yet been discovered." This conclusion 

 is supported by the recent discovery of dingo remains in a stratum 

 lying beneath 63 feet of volcanic sand, underlain by another 60 feet 

 of blue and yellow clay, thus clearly indicating the great antiquity of 

 the animal in question. 



From our own experience of the specimens in the British Musevun, 

 we have hitherto believed that remains of the dingo only occurred in 

 the Australian cavern-deposits, where, we believe, human remains 

 also occur ; but these new discoveries seem to indicate the existence 

 of this dog at a period when it is almost impossible to conceive that 

 man had reached Australia. Startling as it may seem, we are, there- 

 fore, inclined to believe that the dingo may really be an indigenous 

 Australian mammal. There are, indeed, several indications that we 

 shall ere long have to revise our views as to the origin of the mamma- 

 lian fauna of Australia ; and the number of placental land mammals 

 indigenous to that country noticed in the catalogue before us shows 

 how incorrect it is to speak of Australia as exclusively a land of 

 Marsupials and Monotremes. 



Admitting that Mr. Ogilby may very probably be right as to the 

 indigenous origin of the dingo, we can, however, scarcely follow him 

 when he states that " until proof to the contrary is forthcoming, we 

 shall consider the honour of being the original progenitor of our 

 household favourite as the due of the Australian warrigal " (another 

 name for the dingo). Surely the author is aware that in Europe the 

 remains of dogs closely allied to the wolf occur in Pliocene beds, and 

 that there is every reason to believe that the Eskimo dog, as well as 

 sheep-dogs, ai'e more or less directly descended from the wolf, while 

 the Hare Indian dog of North America is just as closely related to 

 the coyote. The origin of the numerous breeds of domestic dogs 

 cannot, indeed, be disposed of in this off-hand manner. 



Nesting of the Gobies. 



A I'APEK, by F. Guitel, which has appeared in the last number of 

 Professor de Lacaze-Duthiers's Archives dc Zoologie expenmentale, 

 contains interesting notes on the hitherto little-observed habits of 

 one of our commonest coast-tishes : Gobiiis minntiis. The Gobies 

 belong to the few fishes which construct a nest for the shelter of 



