1890.] ON THE DOMESTIC DOG. 21 



The following table gives the measurements of different specimens. 

 Table XXX.— Pariah Dogs. 



No. 1 (Bengal). Woa. 2, 3, 4 (Nt-paul). N"o. 5 (Bengal). Nos. 6 & 7 (Nepaul). 

 All from Nat. Hist. Mu3. 



Various opinions have been expressed with regard to the origin 

 and relations of the Dingo. Ogilby ^ says " there are strong 

 grounds for believing that the Dingo or native dog (of Australia) is 

 not an aboriginal inhabitant of the continent, but a subsequent 

 importation, in all probability contemporary with the primitive 

 settlement of the natives. Many circumstances might be advanced 

 in support of this opinion ; the simple fact of bis anomaly is itself 

 a strong corroboration of it ; and his absence from the contiguous 

 islands of Tasmania and New Zealand, inhabited by races of humRii 

 beings differing in language and origin from the natives of Continental 

 Australia, appears almost to demonstrate his introduction from the 

 north, where he is found in New Guinea, in Timor, in many of the 

 smaller groups scattered tbroughout the Pacific Ocean, and in all 

 the great islands of the Indian Archipelago. The extirpation of the 

 Thylacinus harrisii and Dasyurus ursinus from the continental 

 portion of Australia, is a strong corroboration of this supposition." 

 Touatt states that it approaches in appearance the largest kind of 

 Sheep-dog. Its head is elongated, forehead flat, ears short and 

 erect or directed slightly forwards. Its body is covered with hair 

 of two kinds- — (1) woolly and grey, (2) silky and deep yellow or fawn. 

 It seldom barks. 'Stonehenge' says that it resembles the Fox so 

 closely in the shape of its body that an ordinary observer could 

 readily mistake it for one of that species, while the head is that of a 

 wolf. Pelzeln, as already mentioned, believes this dog to have had a 

 common origin with the Pariah. It is not in his opinion a native of 

 Australia, the varieties of its colouring being a proof of this fact. 



The measurements of several specimens will be found in the next 

 table. 



' Trans. Linn. Soc. xviii. p. 121. 



