180 THE BOOK OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 



carnivores, but these he soon ousted, endowed as he was with far 

 superior strength and intelligence." 



The Dingo was known to the aborigines as the Warrigal, and 

 they alone have succeeded in partly domesticating him. Reared 

 from puppyhood in the black's camp, the Dingo is made a great pet 

 of by its owner, and it helps him in his hunting. 



Dingoes have inter-bred with settlers' dogs in the wilder parts, 

 and the cross-breeds are sometimes very fierce and powerful animals. 

 The Dingo is an outlaw with a price upon its head. For it is a 

 Sheep-killer, and that, in Australia, as in other sheep countries, is 

 an unforgivable crime. On most of the large stations or sheep-runs 

 one or more Dingo trappers are employed to keep the Wild Dog in 

 check. These men earn good wages, for their work of destruction 

 is of vital importance to the sheep owners. 



JERBOA RAT. — It is not the plan of this work to describe all the 

 Australian mammals, the following pages dealing with the Mar- 

 supials and Monotremes ; but the Rodents, of which Australia pos- 

 sesses her share, cannot be passed over altogether. Many interesting 

 species of Mice and Rats are found within the borders of the 

 Commonwealth. Of the genus Mus twenty-eight species have been 

 described. But the most interesting forms are those comprised in 

 the genus Conilurus, which is confined to Australia. Fourteen 

 species of Jerboa Rats are known. They are quaint-looking little 

 animals with habits similar to those of the Jerboas of Northern 

 Africa and Central Asia. The hind-limbs are much lengthened, and 

 the mode of progression is by leaps or hops, after the manner of a 

 Kangaroo. 



The Nest-Building Jerboa Rat (C. conditor), which is the only 

 species that can be described here, wears greyish-brown fur; the 

 head and body are about six inches long, and the tail also measures 

 the same. As the name implies, these animals construct nests ; they 

 live in " colonies," and the large domed nest is the result of com- 

 bined labour. It is built about a bush, the branches of which are 

 interlaced, various other sticks and twigs being added. The nest is 

 divided into cells or compartments, which are warmly lined with 

 grass bents. Each compartment is said to be sacred to the use of one 

 family only; but the different "rooms" of this strange dwelling 

 are connected by passage ways. 



Fig. 144 depicts the Australian Desert Jerboa Rat. 



