142 The Carnivora. 
The habit of barking may occasionally be lost, as with some 
dogs left on the island of Juan Fernandez, whose descendants, 
thirty years afterwards, had entirely ceased to bark; a few 
of these, taken into domestication after that period, acquired 
the long-suppressed habit. 
The dingo (on which, as an interesting feral or semi-feral 
species, inhabiting a region dominated by the Marsupial 
order, it may be permitted to make some observations) breeds 
pretty freely in captivity. This has taken place twice or 
more from one pair in the Gardens: the mother ate the 
whole of the first litter. Of the second, one which I saw 
and handled was very irregularly marked black and white, 
though both parents were true bred and brought direct from 
Australia; and at that time it had drop ears. It could not, 
I think, have escaped my attention if any of the pups I have 
seen in Australia had been at all similar to this in the 
colour and ears. However, Mr. Taunton, who possessed it 
subsequently, informs me that it grew up in all respects 
normal as to the colour, and its ears became erect. 
It is yet uncertain whether the dingo is an indigenous 
species, not introduced by man; or whether it was intro- 
duced by that immigrant race from the north-west, which is 
now believed to have populated Australia and Tasmania; or 
whether it is the descendant of domestic species imported 
by the early European navigators. The existence of this 
(palzontologically modern) placental mammal in the midst 
of a region usurped by a paleontologically ancient order of 
implacental mammals, is some presumptive evidence against 
its pre-human indigenous origin, and, thus far, no species of 
canis or other placental animal has been found associated 
with the abundant remains of fossil implacenta in the recent 
strata hitherto explored. This negative evidence, however, 
must not be accepted as conclusive when palzontology pre- 
sents so many examples of survivals. Thus, the dingo may 
represent the last remnant of the Australian placental fauna, 
Its introduction by some immigrant race of man is likely to 
