NOTJiS ON WILD DOG'S, d-r. 501 



keeping low down iu the ravines, the larger breed hunting on the 

 higher mountains ; but he doubts the truth of this statement. 



1 would suggest that the " small breed " is really a pack of 

 females and cubs ; the mothers ai'e teaching the young ones to hunt, 

 and they naturally blood them on easily-killed animals as sheep and 

 goats which are found low down in the valleys. The full-grown 

 and larger animals would seek their natural food, wild goats, musk 

 deer, barasing, oorin, etc., in the haunts of such creatures on the 

 higher ground. 



" Stonehenge " has some remarks on the dhole, as, following 

 Captain Williamson, he calls the wild dog ; he quotes from the older 

 writers, Buffon, Pennant, and Bell, on the origin, and Williamson 

 on the habits, of the animal. He states that the dholes, unlike most 

 dogs which hunt in packs, " run nearly mute, uttering only occa- 

 sionally a slight whimper, which may serve to guide their com- 

 panions equally well with the more sonorous tongues of other 

 hounds." On the whole, I may say that his account of the wild 

 animal is not very authoritative, as his special knowledge of the 

 subject begins with the domesticated varieties of the dog. 



Ogilvy's Dictionary states that dhole is the Cingalese name for the 

 wild dog, and quaintly adds that it ''runs down almost every animal 

 except the elephant and rhinoceros." Mr. Blanford does not give 

 the name dhole, and says that the wild dog is not found in Ceylon. 

 To what, then, do the Cingalese refer as the dhole ? What is 

 Chrysaeus ceylanicus ? and is Jerdon (p. 148) wrong iu saying: 

 " The wild dog is common in Ceylon ? '' 



There is an excellently compiled account of the wild dog by 

 Professor Duncan in CasselFs Natural History, Vol. II., giving the 

 facts as I have quoted them from other writers. 



Dr. Nicholson, in his Manual of Zoology (p. 747), figures the 

 dentition of the wolf as a typical Canis, but omits all mention of the 

 genus Cyon, unless he means to include it when he says : " Such wild 

 dogs as there are, are probably merely derived from the domestic 

 dog ;" this, however, is so clearly not true of Cyon that I conclude 

 he does not mean to indicate it among these tame dogs run wild, 

 but is rather thinking of the Australian dingo. 



My interest in the subject of Indian wild dogs has been increased 

 66 



