MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA i 79 



Or lurks millennial Eden 'neath your face ? 

 The cenotaphs of species dead elsewhere 

 That in your limits leap and swim and fly, 

 Or trail uncanny harp-strings from your trees, 

 Mix omens with the auguries that dare 

 To plant the Cross upon your forehead sky, 

 A Virgin helpmate Ocean at your knees." 



That magnificent ninth line — 



" The cenotaphs of species dead elsewhere "— 



gives the natural history of Australia in a nutshell. 



DINGO.— The Dingo, or Wild Dog of Australia, (Fig. 143), 

 presents an insoluble riddle to naturalists. How did it enter 

 Australia, and from what " undiscovered country " did it migrate 

 to the land of Marsupials ? Ranging over the whole of the continent, 

 the Dingo is the sole representative in Australia of the land car- 

 nivora. Authorities place the Dingo, on dental and skeletal evidence, 

 in an intermediate position between the Wild Dogs of Southern 

 America and the Dogs and Wolves of the Old World. A handsome 

 animal, the Dingo is about the size of a Collie Dog, measuring five 

 feet in length and over two feet in height. The head is Fox-like and 

 the ears short and erect, giving the animal an alert appearance. 

 The following admirable description of Australia's Wild Dog is 

 given by Lucas and Le Souef — 



"The body is well covered with hair of two kinds, a grey under- 

 fur, and longer hairs which give the body colouring. The tail is of 

 moderate length, bushy, but hardly with the brush of the Fox. The 

 colour varies from yellow or brownish-red to even black, the Western 

 Dogs being darker. The under-parts and inner surfaces of the 

 limbs are lighter, and may be whitish. The feet and the tip of the 

 tail are often white. Albinos occur, and these frequently breed true, 

 so that a white race might be established. Females seem always to 

 predominate." 



The same authorities are of opinion that the Dingo reached 

 Australia without the aid of man in Pliocene times. He did not 

 come from the South, for Dingoes are not found in Tasmania. "It 

 is probable," write our authors, "that he " (the Dingo) "is a descend- 

 ant of some Miocene or early Pliocene Dog of South-Eastern Asia, 

 who wandered into Australia when the land-bridge still existed where 

 Torres Strait is now. The destruction of that bridge severed him 

 from his kindred, and left him free to take possession of the new 

 territory. At first he had to compete with the Marsupial ground 



