THE PEDIGREE OF THE DOG 205 



regarded as a distinct species, under the name of Cams 

 dingo, and is found both in the wild condition and also 

 in a semi-domesticated state among the natives. In 

 appearance it is somewhat like a rather small wolf, with 

 pointed ears and a bushy tail ; its usual colour being 

 rufous tawny, although some individuals are much paler, 

 and others so much darker as to be almost black. 



As, with the exception of numerous peculiar kinds of 

 rats and mice and a few bats, Australia is populated with 

 marsupials to the exclusion of ordinary mammals, it was 

 long supposed that the dingo, which appears to be very 

 closely related to the Indian pariah dog, was introduced by 

 man. But of late years a quantity of its fossilised remains 

 have been dug up in various parts of Australia in association 

 with those of gigantic kangaroos, diprotodons, and other 

 extinct marsupials, in beds where there appears to be no 

 evidence of the presence of man. And it has consequently 

 been urged that the dingo is as truly indigenous to 

 Australia as are kangaroos and wombats. There is, 

 however, great difficulty in accepting this view, as the 

 rodents might have obtained an entrance by being carried 

 on floating wood, or by some other means of transport ; 

 and if the dingo travelled by land to Australia, other 

 placental mammals ought to have accompanied it. More- 

 over, the dingo is neither a wolf nor a jackal, but in all 

 essential characters a true dog of the domesticated type, 

 which seems scarcely separable from Cams familiaris. We 

 have, therefore, the further difficulty of determining, if it 

 be really a distinct species, from what Asiatic form it took 

 its origin. This difficulty is enhanced when we recollect 

 that throughout the Malay countries there are no wild 

 species of the restricted genus Canis known, the so-called 

 wild dogs of Java and Sumatra belonging, as already said, 



