124 CANIS. 
the feet and sometimes the muzzle, though this is also sometimes 
black. The animal may be of an uniformly light reddish or 
yellowish brown, save that it is paler beneath, on the outside of 
the forelegs, below the elbow, as well as on the inside of the 
limbs and on the cheeks.” 
In reference to the vexed question as to whether the Warrigal 
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 
Prof. McCoy of fossil remains, in no wise differing from those of 
recent individuals, and contemporaneous with similar remains of 
Thylacoleo, Diprotodon, &c., sets this question at rest, and goes 
far towards proving that this species is indigenous to continental 
Australia, and was an inhabitant thereof prior to its colonization 
by man, no human remains of such antiquity having as yet been 
discovered. 
As this question is so intimately connected with that of the 
origin of the domestic dog and its many varieties, no apology is 
needed for quoting largely from Prof. McCoy’s article (Prod. 
Paleont. Vict. dec. vil. pp. 7-10). He says :— 
“The origin of the domestic dog is a question of great difficulty 
and interest, which it has been suggested can be best investigated 
by a study of the Dog known to the lowest types of the human 
race ; and the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia were thought 
to afford these conditions. On the other hand the remarkable 
absence of the higher forms of Mammalian Quadrupeds in Aus- 
tralia was supposed to render it highly probable that the Dingo 
was not really a native of the place, but was brought at some 
remote period from some other country by human savage races 
arriving to constitute the population of Australia. Taking the 
case of the Dingo, it was certain that the native dogs of con- 
tinental Asia were not clearly related, to the extent of specific 
identity, with the Australian one, nor could any near analogies 
be found elsewhere ; while on the other hand the facts are beyond 
dispute: (1st) that the Dingo is singularly averse to domestication 
and man’s society when compared with other dogs ; (2nd) that it 
is extremely abundant, with little or no variation, over the whole 
of Australia; and (3rd) that the further you go from human 
haunts, near the coast, into the desert interior, the more numerous 
do the Dingoes appear, indicating that the species was a really 
indigenous one.” 
And again, alluding to its contemporaneity, mentioned above, 
with the great fossil Mammals of Australia, he remarks “ that 
the Dingo was really one of the most ancient of the indigenous 
mammals of the country, and abounded as now most probably 
before man himself appeared. . . . . Our present species, 
