THEIR TENACITY OF LIFE. 233 



merely 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 

 kangaroo dogs, they met a dingo, which was 

 attacked by the dogs, and worried to such a 

 degree, that finding matters becoming serious, 

 and that the worst of the sport came to his share, 

 the cunning dingo pretended to be dead ; — think- 

 ing he had departed the way of all dogs, they 

 gave him a parting shake, and left him. Unfortu- 

 nately for the poor dingo, he was of an impatient 

 disposition, and was consequently premature in 

 his resurrection, for before the settler and his 

 dogs had gone any distance, he was seen to rise 

 and skulk away, but on account of the rough treat- 

 ment he had received, at a slow pace ; the dogs 

 soon re-attacked him, when he was handled in a 

 manner that must have eventually prevented any 

 resuscitation taking place a second time. 



These instances may account for the fact why 

 skeletons of the animals are not found in places 

 where they have been left supposed dead. I 

 have more than once been taken where one had 

 been killed, as I desired to have a skeleton ; but 



