Wild Dog of the Western Ghats. 407 
and in two domestic dogs in my possession, one of them a powerful 
Brinjart of the greyhound form; the other out of an English spaniel 
by a pariah: the claws are short, stout, and black. The colour is a 
uniform bright red, from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail, and 
to the extremities of the toes; a shade or so, however, lighter under the 
throat, on the chest, belly, and on the inner surface of the fore legs down 
to the wrist. The tail is bushy, the hairs red at the base, but black at 
the tip; the fur consists of silky and woolly hairs, the latter very short, 
without any disposition to curl. 
The proportions of the animal are: from the tip of the nose to between 
the ears, seven inches and three-quarters ; greatest width of the head, three 
inches and a half; length from between the ears to the insertion of the 
tail, twenty-six inches, of which the neck is eight inches ; length from the 
claws to the articulation of the ulna with the humerus, ten inches and 
a half; toes two inches long by eight-tenths of an inch high; tail eleven 
inches ; height of the animal about seventeen inches; the extreme length 
from the nose to the tip of the tail, is three feet eight inches and 
three-quarters. I have stated the height indeterminately, from some 
provoking difficulties having occurred to prevent me setting the animal up 
correctly. From the extreme rarity of specimens of the Wild Dog, I was 
particularly anxious to prepare the skin properly: it was removed from 
the body with every possible care, leaving in the necessary bones of the 
head and limbs ; and the interior surface was fully imbued with arsenical 
paste. The skin was then filled with dry grass, and the specimen put 
into a basket with some skins of the moschus memina, to be set up on my 
return to Poona. Having taken up my monsoon quarters, the skin of the 
dog was steeped in tepid water, and the usual process of stuffing with 
cotton and putting in wires was attempted; to my utter surprise, the 
skin in many places opposed as little resistance to pressure or tension as 
wetted brown paper would have done. The cause of the decomposition 
was perfectly inexplicable, as the skins of the small deer, similarly prepared 
and similarly circumstanced, were found to be quite sound. The mis- 
fortune effectually prevented me from setting the dog on its legs, with 
the body at its natural elevation, and I am necessitated, therefore, to 
speak of its height indeterminately. ‘The head is in excellent preserva- 
tion; the body is sufficiently so to give its true form and magnitude, 
and the limbs, although the skin has given way in certain places, have 
