70 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



This kindness towards those they attempt to domes- 

 ticate does not prevent them from slaughtering the 

 wild dingo whenever and wherever they can. 



When they catch one by trapping he is killed and 

 thrown on the fire and singed. Then he is drawn and 

 afterward roasted in an oven constructed of heated 

 stones. The carcass is covered with bark or grass and 

 earth. In the course of two hours or more he is well 

 cooked and fit to be eaten. 



Mr. Curr says, " The Australian dingo is not want- 

 ing in courage. When pinned in a corner he will 

 attack a man, and exhibit all the fierceness of a watch- 

 dog. He is not unlike the sheep-dog, but he resem- 

 bles also the fox, and when enraged has a wolf -like 

 aspect. A full-grown, fairly well-fed dingo is about 

 two feet in height, and two feet six inches in length. 

 His head is like that of the fox, his ears are erect, but 

 not long. His color varies from a yellowish tawny to 

 a reddish brown, growing lighter towards the belly, 

 and the tip of his brush is generally white. He has a 

 habit of turning his head over his shoulder when he 

 looks at a supposed enemy, something like the fox." 



Returning for a little to the claim of the dingo to 

 be counted a genuine native of Australia, in sinking 

 for water near Tower Hill, in the western part of Vic- 

 toria, bones and skulls of dingoes were found not only 



