Game Animals of India, etc. 



fur at the base of the long hairs of the coat, but as the 

 same absence characterises Indian skins, this feature 

 cannot be reckoned as distinctive of the former. 



The Malay wild dog is known to occur in Sumatra, 

 Java, the Malay Peninsula, and Tenasserim, while it 

 has been reported from Borneo. It has, however, yet 

 to be determined whether the wild dog of Northern 

 Burma is identical with the present or the following 

 race ; and it may be regarded as certain that when a full 

 series of specimens is obtained, a complete transition 

 will be found in the districts between Tenasserim and 

 Assam from the one to the other. 



Whether the wild dog of India and the Himalaya 

 is specifically the same as its Malay representative 

 is a point on which naturalists are not agreed. A 

 compromise is to regard the two as local races of a 

 single species, when the name of the Malay race will 

 be C. sumatrensis ty picas ^ and the Indian C. sumatrensis 

 deccanensis. Both differ from the wild dog of the 

 Altai and other parts of Central Asia (C. alpinus) by 

 the circumstance that the upper cutting, or carnassial, 

 tooth is longer than the combined length of the two 

 molars behind it, instead of shorter. From the analogy 

 of the distribution of other animals, it might have been 

 supposed that the wild dog of the Himalaya and Tibet 

 would be nearer to the Altai than to the Indian form ; 

 but this is not the case, and the Tibetan and Indian 

 animals, which agree in the relative size of their teeth, 

 are regarded as identical. The typical Deccan wild 

 dog lacks, however, the under-fur of the Himalayan 

 and Tibet specimens. 



In general appearance and build the Indian wild dog 

 (like its Malay representative) is more like a jackal than 

 a wolf, the limbs being proportionately shorter than in 

 the latter. The tail forms a good brush. In length 

 the head and body of a full-grown male measured 

 between 37 and 38 inches, while the tail, inclusive of 

 the hair, measured between 14 and 15 inches. The 



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