Zoo Notes 
THe Dingo is remarkable as 
being the only 
The Dingo. mammal found in 
Australia which is 
not a marsupial. In all proba- 
bility it is an importation, and 
not a true native of the island. 
Many attempts have been made 
to exterminate the race on account 
of the great havoc among the 
sheep which even a single dingo 
will commit, and they are now 
only to be found in the interior. 
Sir John Sebright kept a dingo 
for about a year almost always 
in his room. He fed him himself, 
and took every means he could 
think of to reclaim him, but 
with no effect. He was insensible 
to caresses, and never appeared to 
distmmguish Sir John from any other person. 
The dog would never follow him, even from 
one room to another. Wolves and foxes 
have shown much more sociability, and the 
above imstance seems to prove that the 
propensities so marked in every breed of 
domestic dog are not found in the dingo, at 
all events in its natural state, although 1 
must be confessed that, in the case of dingoes 
BOA-CONSTRICTOR. 
DAM 
DINGO. 
bred in captivity, better results have been 
obtained, as, for example, Mrs. Brooke’s 
“ Chelsworth Myall,” whose photograph was 
given on page 160. 
5c 
OnE of the most imteresting objects in the 
fine collection of reptiles at 
the Zoo is the common Boa, 
which invariably affords 
ereat pleasure to the ordi- 
nary visitors, who seem to 
be more familar with this 
snake than with any other 
in the collection, if one 
may judge by the remarks 
of the crowd generally 
gathered around its 
enclosure. The capacity 
which this class of animals 
possesses of requiring food 
only at long intervals 
accounts for the animal 
lying for weeks in a quiet 
and almost torpid state. 
But when the feeling of 
hunger asserts itself, they 
rouse themselves from 
their long repose, and the 
voracity of their appetite is 
then as remarkable as their 
previous indifference. In a 
Boa-=Constrictor 
in a striking 
attitude. 
