144 



THE DOG TRIBE. 



they inhabit. These so-called pariah dogs 

 swarm in the East, as, for example, in India. 

 Flocks of them living in freedom form the 

 sanitary police of the towns and villages in 

 which they live, cleansing them of all kinds 

 of filth and garbage. They closely resemble 

 one another, and as the half-wild street-dogs 

 of Cairo resemble the jackals of the country 

 in which they are found, so the pariah dogs 

 of India can hardly be distinguished from the 

 wild jackal which inhabits the same country. 



As representative of these degenerate 

 breeds a figure is given of the Australian 

 dog, the Dingo (Canis dingo], fig. 61. It is 

 a wolf with long legs and bushy tail of the 

 size of a sheep-dog. Dampier found it in a 

 wild condition when he landed in Australia 

 in 1699. It chased kangaroos in not very 

 numerous flocks. From the earliest times 

 the natives have tamed dingos which they 

 have caught young, and have made use of 

 them in hunting marsupials. After the colon- 

 ization of Australia these dogs attacked herds 

 of sheep by preference, committing great 

 ravages amongst them, and they are hence 

 relentlessly pursued by the colonists. 



When tamed they are good watch-dogs, 

 but they cherish a savage hatred towards 

 other dogs and towards Europeans. The fur 

 is a mixture of yellow and black. Hybrids 

 with other dogs are not uncommon, and are 

 esteemed for their strength and endurance. 



" The Dingos, or native dogs, ' Warragal ' of the 

 aborigines . . . are the wolves of the colony, 

 and are perhaps unequalled for cunning. These 

 animals breed in the holes of rocks: a litter was 

 found near Yas Plains, which the discoverer failed 

 to destroy, thinking to return and catch the mother 

 also, and thus exterminate the whole family; but 

 the 'old lady' must have been watching him, for 

 on his returning a short time after, he found all the 

 little dingos had been carried away, and he was 

 never able, although diligent search was made in 

 the vicinity, to discover their place of removal. 

 The cunning displayed by these animals, and the 

 agony they can endure without evincing the usual 

 effects of pain, would seem almost incredible, had 



it not been related by those on whose testimony 

 every dependence can be placed. The following 

 are a few among a number of extraordinary in- 

 stances. 



" One had been beaten so severely that it was 

 supposed all the bones were broken, and it was left 

 for dead. Upon the person accidentally looking 

 back, after having walked some distance, his sur- 

 prise was much excited by seeing ' master dingo 

 rise, shake himself, and march into the bush, evad- 

 ing all pursuit.' One supposed dead was brought 

 into a hut for the purpose of undergoing 'decorti- 

 cation ; ' at the commencement of the skinning 

 process upon the face, the only perceptible move- 

 ment was a slight quivering of the lips, which was 

 regarded at the time as mere muscular irritability: 

 the man, after skinning a very small portion, left 

 the hut to sharpen his knife, and returning found 

 the animal sitting up, with the flayed integument 

 hanging over one side of the face. 



"Another instance was that of a settler, who, 

 returning from a sporting expedition with six kan- 

 garoo dogs, met a dingo, which was attacked by 

 the dogs and worried to such a degree, that, find- 

 ing matters becoming serious, and that the worst 

 of the sport came to his share, the cunning dingo 

 pretended to be dead; thinking he had departed 

 the way of all dogs, they gave him a parting shake 

 and left him. Unfortunately for the poor dingo, 

 he was of an impatient disposition, and was con- 

 sequently premature in his resurrection: for before 

 the settler and his dogs had gone any distance, he 

 was seen to rise and skulk away, but at a slow 

 pace, on account of the treatment he had received ; 

 the dogs soon re-attacked him, when he was handled 

 in a manner that must have effectively prevented 

 any resuscitation a second time." Bennett: Wan- 

 derings in New South Wales. 



The Group of the Foxes (sub-genus Vulpes). 



Distinguished from the wolves by their vertical oval pupil, 

 their shorter legs, longer and more bushy tail, larger ears, 

 and more elegant and more pointed snout. The dentition 

 shows indeed the same number and arrangement of the 

 teeth, which, however, seem to be more slender and more 

 elegantly formed, characters which are specially well seen 

 in the long and much curved canines. 



These characters, which are easily distin- 

 guishable in extreme cases, appear, however, 

 only gradually, and we find transitional forms 

 in respect of all of them. 



