The South Australian Naturalist. 59 



THE DINGO. 



Mr. J. Neil MeGil]^ writes : — In a report of an excursion 

 on December 4, 1920, to the Zoological Gardens ("S.A. 

 Naturalist," Vol. 11, No. 2) I read with interest that "bones 

 of the dingo were found with those of the deprotodon and with 

 human teeth as fossils in certain parts of Australia.'' I am 

 not quite sure of the significance of the latter part of the quota- 

 tion. Most people, I believe, think that the dingo was intro- 

 duced by Dutch navigators into the Northern Territory. Early 

 settlers in the interior parts of the Commonwealth have stated 

 that when they went there the dingo was not in great numbers, 

 but was rapidly increasing. This was before the introduction 

 of rabbits to those parts. One would naturally ask, why there 

 should be a noted increase, if, as the finding of fossil bones 

 would appear to indicate, the dingo was a native of Australia. 

 After the introduction of the rabbit the increase of the dingo 

 was astonishing. Previously the female dingo seldom reared 

 more than two yoimg ones a year, whereas now, with a plenti- 

 ful supply of rabbits as food for its offspring, the female can 

 and does rear as many as ten pups. The average litter of pups, 

 in the writer's experience, would now be quite six per annum. 

 The dingo nowadays seeks for breeding quarters in a locality 

 where rabbits abound. 



I have always thought that nearly all the pests that Aus- 

 tralians have to contend with were importations, and would 

 reluctantly acce]:»t the theory that our second worst pest, the 

 dingo, is a native. Undoubtedly the rabbit is the worst pest 

 by far, and it even increases a number of the other pests, i.e., 

 dingo, fox, blowfly, etc. 



I would like to suggest that the bones of the dingo found 

 with fossil bones of the diprotodon were of less antiquity than 

 those of the diprotodon. It has been my experience to find 

 that, in hot Aveather, the dingo seeks out the dry salt lakes, 

 scratches out a deep trench in the soft, cool bed of the lake, and 

 camps therein. In this way the dingo is able to keep alive 

 during the heat of the summer, I have on many occasions, 

 when hunting the dingo along a lakeside, found these deep 

 tunnels, and now and again dead dogs are found in them, some- 

 times as deep-^s six feet from surface. Now, with the dust- 

 storms that prevail in these central lake localities, and per- 

 chance with floodwaters spreading over the lake bed, the tunnels 

 in time become filled up. I would respectfully suggest that 

 this might be the origin of the bones found along with the 

 diprotodon. I am familiar with the Lake Callabonna area, 



