CATALOGUE. 79 



but their barking is in such a voice as no language can express. It is 

 utterly unlike the fine voice of our cultivated breeds, and almost as 

 unlike to the peculiar strains of the jackal and of the fox. The Biiansu 

 does not burrow like the wolf and fox, but reposes and breeds in the 

 recesses and natural cavities of rocks, in the manner of the jackal of 

 Nepal. These peculiarities of domicile are probably in a great degree 

 the consequences of the respective habitats of the animals in open plains 

 or mountain fastnesses; and they doubtless change them when con- 

 strained to change their location. There is scarcely a wild animal, 

 however large or formidable, which the wild dogs will not sometimes 

 attack and destroy ; and tame buffaloes and cows, when grazing in very 

 solitary districts, sometimes fall a sacrifice to their ravenous appetite. 

 Human beings they are never known to attack, and indeed they seem 

 to be actuated by a very peculiar degree of dread of man. Those 

 which I kept in confinement, when their den was approached, rushed 

 into the remotest corner of it, huddled one upon another, with their 

 heads concealed as much as possible. I never dared to lay hands on 

 them, but if poked with a stick they would retreat from it as long as 

 they could, and then crush themselves into a corner, growling low, and 

 sometimes, but rarely, seizing the stick and biting it with vehemence. 

 After ten months' confinement, they were as wild and shy as the first 

 hour I got them. Their eyes emitted a strong light in the dark, and 

 their bodies had the peculiar foetid odour of the fox and jackal in all 

 its rankness. They were very silent, never uttering an audible sound 

 save when fed, at which time they would snarl in a subdued tone at 

 each other, but never fight ; nor did they on any occasion show any 

 signs of quarrelsomeness or pugnacity/* 



For many valuable additional details respecting the form aud pecu- 

 liarities of this animal, the account of Mr. Hodgson, in the eighteenth 

 volume of the Asiatic Researches, may be consulted with advantage. 



The history of the different species and varieties of the genus Canis, 

 as dispersed through Continental Asia generally, has been illustrated by 

 Colonel Ham. Smith in the Naturalist's Library, with admirable critical 

 research and labour. 



102. CUON SUMATRENSIS, Hardwire Sp. 



Canis familiaris, var. sumatrensis, Hardwicke, Trans. Linn. 



Soc. XIII. p. 235, with a figure, Raffles, Trans. 



Linn. Soc. XIII. p. 249. 

 Cuon sumatrensis, Gray, Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. 



Ship Samarang, p 16. 



