DOGS. G9 



All the untamed species are lank and gaunt, their 

 muzzles are long and slender, their eyes oblique, and 

 their strength and tenacity of life are always marvellous. 



The Dingo, or Australian dog, roams in packs through 

 that vast country ; has a broad head ; fierce, oblique 

 eyes ; acute muzzle ; short, pointed, erect ears ; tail 

 bushy, and never raised to more than a horizontal 

 position. He does not bark, but howls fearfully ; is 

 extremely sagacious, and has a remarkable power of 

 bearing pain. When beaten so severely as to be left 

 for dead, he has been seen to get up and run away. 

 A man proceeded to skin one, not doubting that life 

 was extinct, and after proceeding a little way with the 

 operation, he left the hut to sharpen his knife. When 

 he returned, the poor animal was sitting up, with the 

 loose skin hanging over one side of his face. 



The Dingos worry the cattle of the settlers, and will 

 even eat pieces out of them as they lie upon the ground; 

 the leg of a sheep has been frequently gnawed off by 

 them. Domesticated dogs will hunt and kill them, 

 but show signs of great disgust afterwards, always, if 

 they can, plunging themselves into water, as if to get 

 rid of the contamination caused by such contact. One 

 taken from his mother at six weeks old was partially 

 tamed ; but at first he crouched down in all the darkest 

 corners he could find, looking at every one with aver- 

 sion, and when alone, howling incessantly, especially if 

 the moon were shining. He became gradually recon- 

 ciled to those who fed him, but to no one else. He 

 never gave warning of the approach of strangers, and 

 never made an open attack. It is remarkable that 

 these doprs are not found in the closely neighbouring 

 island of Van Diemen's Land. 



