198 FAUNA OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA 



fifteen inches long. It is a well made and shapely animal, 

 with strong legs and ears of moderate size. The number 

 of young at a birth is usually three or four, occasionally 

 five. The assertion that it has seven or eight is not con- 

 firmed by my experience. I have a record of twenty-five 

 litters of dingo bitches by domestic fathers, mostly 

 pointers, stag-hounds, and retrievers. Fifteen of these 

 were of three pups each, seven of four, and three of five. 

 The dingo will cross-breed with any kind of dog that can 

 pair with it, and the pups sometimes most resemble the 

 mother ; occasionally have a much stronger likeness to the 

 father. When they are most mixed they would probably 

 be guessed to be the offspring of a Scotch collie and a 

 retriever. 



In disposition the dingo is a quarrelsome, sly, and 

 treacherous animal. It has an excellent memory, and 

 never forgets an act of ill-treatment on the part of either 

 its master or any other person. It is now never kept by 

 the colonists, who thoroughly abhor it on account of its 

 wolf-like destructiveness ; and its numbers have been 

 greatly thinned, even within my recollection. It is a 

 match for most dogs of double its own size, and its 

 ferocity and strength are very great ; yet it is an exceed- 

 ingly cowardly animal. When caught in traps or pit-falls 

 it often simulates death — a habit which I also find recorded 

 of the wolf. It will then permit itself to be handled and 

 held head downwards ; but the moment it gets its chance, 

 with a snap and a snarl it inflicts a bite on his captor which 

 he never forgets, and in an instant is gone. 



The dingo is never thoroughly tamed. Old ones 

 captured and taken home escape on the first opportunity, 

 and cubs reared by hand also frequently forsake their 

 owners when they are grown. They always do so if 

 beaten, and sometimes if merely scolded. The blackfellow 

 almost idolises his dingo, and pets and fondles it in a 

 ridiculous manner ; but the animal, besides following him 

 and him only, never evinces the least affection for him. 

 No member of its master's family dare touch it ; and it 

 takes notice of none except perhaps to revenge some injury 



