THE DINGO. 127 



seems more probable that these breeds, having been long treated 

 as they now are, and applied to the same uses, should have 

 acquired habits, by experience and observation, which in course 

 of time have become hereditary. From these and many other 

 observations, I am led to conclude that by far the greater part of 

 the propensities that are generally supposed to be instinctive, 

 are not implanted in animals by nature, but that they are the 

 result of long experience, acquired and accumulated through 

 many generations, so as, in the course of time, to assume the 

 character of instinct. I cannot but think that part of what is 

 called the national character of the different varieties of man- 

 kind may, in some degree, be influenced by acquired habits 

 having become hereditary."* 



THE DINGO, OR AUSTRALIAN UOG. 







(Canis Australasia.) 



This dog inhabits the whole of New South Wales, either in a 

 wild or half- domesticated state ; but the wild dingos are larger 



* Observations upon the Instinct of Animals (1836), p. 15. 



