THE DINGO. 



255 



crying like a child the great rough-looking bear of a man because our Dogs had gone up the 

 Hill and killed his pup ' Blue-nose.' ' The two fell on him,' he said, ' together, and now you 

 could hardly tell his head from his tail.' It was a fearful retribution ; but even his master 

 confessed that ' Blue-nose ' deserved his fate, and every cur in the country rejoiced that he 

 was dead." 



THE DHSTGO, or Warragal, as it is called by the natives, is an inhabitant of Australia, 

 where it is found in the greatest profusion, being, indeed, a pest of no ordinary character to 

 those colonists who are employed in raising and maintaining large flocks of sheep. 



The color of this animal is a reddish-brown, sometimes plentifully sprinkled with black 

 hairs over the back and ribs, the legs retaining the ordinary ruddy hue. Its muzzle is very 

 sharp, as is generally the case with wild Dogs ; its ears are sharp, short, and erect ; its tail is 



DINGO. Canie dingo. 



pendent and rather bushy ; and its eyes small, cunning, and obliquely placed in the head. 

 It was formerly thought to be an aboriginal inhabitant of Australia, but is now allowed to be 

 an importation from some source which is at present uncertain. 



Large packs of these wild Dogs ravage the localities in which they have taken up their 

 residence, and have attained to so high a degree of organization that each pack will only hunt 

 over its own district, and will neither intrude upon the territory which has been allotted to a 

 neighboring pack of Dingos, nor permit any intrusion upon its own soil. For this reason, 

 their raids upon the flocks and herds are so dangerous that the colonists were obliged to call a 

 meeting, in order to arrange proceedings against the common foe. Before the sheep-owners 

 had learned to take effectual measures to check the inroads of these marauders, they lost their 

 flocks in such numbers that they counted their missing sheep by the hundred. From one 

 colony no less than twelve hundred sheep and lambs were stolen in three months. 



The tenacity of life which is exhibited by the Dingo is almost incredible, and it appears 

 to cling as firmly to existence as the opossum. Like the last-mentioned animal, the Dingo 

 appears to feign death when it finds that escape is impracticable, and often manages to elude 



