128 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



found her circling round and might easily have shot her ; but I sympathised 

 with the faithful brute in her bereavement, and would not harm her. 



I struck camp and hastened to my bungalow in order to make due provision 

 for rearing the puppies. I made them over to a friend, who was living with 

 me, to rear. He got a pie from the village with a family of five puppies. 

 He mixed the jungle puppies with these ; but the old pie was so horrified at 

 their odour that she would have none of them. He was more successful 

 with a second pie who possessed three pups of her own. She also manifested 

 great repugnance at first ; but after a great deal of trouble this was overcome 

 and in time she became as attached to the jungle puppies as to her own. This 

 was no doubt due to the fact that, in the course of a week or so, her own 

 puppies had got to smell as badly as their jungle confreres. At a very early 

 age the jungle puppies evinced an incorrigibly pugnacious disposition, and 

 fought with appalling ferocity. It was incredible to see such small young 

 things fighting with so much resolution and tenacity. If the uppermost belli- 

 gerent were lifted by the tail to the height of one's head, it would carry its 

 opponent up with it, and the latter likewise would decline to relinquish its 

 hold. They would fight in this way day after day, the sluts being quite as 

 pugnacious as the dog-puppies. The unfortunate pie-pups must have 

 wondered into what company they had fallen. They would yelp piteously 

 when their wild foster-brethren shook them up, and we were obliged to send 

 them away, when still quite small, to prevent them from being killed. Mean- 

 time the wild pups continued to fight with each other with unabated ferocity 

 until they were about seven or eight months old, when — most singular to relate 

 —they put a permanent period to their hostilities and lived in perfect 

 amity. Apparently they had by this time decided which was the strongest 

 amongst them, as they paid noticeable deference to one large dog— the largest 

 amongst them—who acted as their leader. They never fought with each 

 other after they became adults. The big dog above referred to had a white 

 spot on the near forepaw, and the extreme end of his tail was tipped with 

 white. This was only observable on . a close and critical scrutiny. Two 

 other dogs were similarly marked ; the remaining three were entirely russet- 

 red. They all had large prick ears (which they laid back flat, like a vicious 

 liorse when angry or attacking) and long heavy bushy tails. They would 

 eat nothing but raw meat. We nearly starved them to death in the endeavour 

 to make them eat cooked food, but without avail. They would eat nothing 

 but flesh — and not that unless it was raw. A monkey they relished most. 

 When one would be thrown to them, they would eat the flesh out most artis- 

 tically, leaving the skin like a shell. They would not eat stale meat, and this 

 confirmed a fact I had previously noticed in the forests, that wild dogs never 

 return to a kill after having made one meal from it. I have frequently come 

 across the carcases of sambar in the forest, killed by wild dogs, with only a 

 small portion consumed and the rest rotting to waste. The dogs were dan- 

 gerous to approach when feeding ; but could be handled at any other time. 



