332 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 
the author observes that, in regard to the question whether the dingo 
‘‘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 Professor 
McCoy of fossil remains, in no wise differing from those of recent 
individuals, and contemporaneous with similar remains of Thylacoles, 
Diprotodon, &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 Museum, 
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 Jand 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, are more or less directly descended from the wolf, while 
the Hare Indian dog of North America is just as closely related to 
the coyoté. The origin of the numerous breeds of domestic dogs 
cannot, indeed, be disposed of in this off-hand manner. 
NESTING OF THE GOBIES. 
A PAPER, by F. Guitel, which has appeared in the last number of 
Professor de Lacaze-Duthiers’s Avchives de Zoologie expérimentale, 
contains interesting notes on the hitherto little-observed habits of 
one of our commonest coast-fishes: Gobius minutus. The Gobies 
belong to the few fishes which construct a nest for the shelter of 
