1842.] Asiatic Society. 595 



All these characters are perfectly applicable to the Chryseus of our type, and to its 

 varieties. The mistaking of Oppian commenced with Belon ; and Kaernpfer, being 

 unacquainted with the existence of the rufous Wild Dog, referred Aureus to the Jackal, 

 and misled Linnaeus.* 



* " It is even more likely," continues Col. Smith, "that from this group the mixture with a domes- 

 tic race might be reported to have been obtained, which the ancients, and even Aristotle, repeated- 

 ly assert to be the Alopecides or the Chaonian and Spartan breeds, but which, from their strength 

 and courage, could never have resulted from crossing Dogs with Foxes. 



" There is some reason to presume that the Chryseus formerly existed in Southern Europe : for 

 to what other species can we refer the kind of Wild Dogs noticed by Scaliger, as existing in the 

 woods of Montifalcone in Italy. ' There resided,' he says, ' for ages about Montifalcone, a species 

 of wild Dogs ; animals differing from Wolves in manners, voice, and colours ; never mixing with 

 them, and being particularly fond of human flesh.' This last character may have been a gratuitous 

 addition of his informants : he does not, in this paragraph, notice the particular colour, but, in a 

 another part of the work, wild Dogs of a rufous colour are incidentally recorded. A family of the 

 name of Montifalcone bore a Wolf salient gules; while another of the same name had red Dogs 

 for supporters, in a collection of blazoned Italian arms in the Library of St. Mark at Venice." 



I shall now proceed to invite the attention of observers to the following notices by the same 

 indefatigable and learned Zoologist: — 



1st, — " With some hesitation we place here the short notice of the Wak, a canine designated as 

 a Dhole, but possibly a very distinct species. It was first mentioned to us by the late Lieut. Col. 

 Deare, of the 8th Dragoons, who was a native of the East Indies, a keen sportsman, and many 

 years resident in that part of the world. A printed account of a similar animal, observed in 

 captivity, has since appeared in one of the Annuals : both agree in the description, one having 

 been killed in Central India, the other seen in the Southern Provinces. This Dhole was repre- 

 sented to be a robust thick-bodied animal, nearly equal in height to a harrier hound, but heavier 

 in weight; the head broad and ponderous; the forehead flat, with a greater distance from the ears 

 to the eyes than from these to the nose ; this was blunt, dark-coloured, and rather broad, the 

 rictus or gape black, opening to beneath the eyes, which were of a greenish-yellow, set in dark 

 eye-lids, and offering a most ferocious aspect; the teeth powerful; the legs and claws remark- 

 ably strong, resembling a Bull-Dog's ; and the tail rather short, but more bushy towards the end, 

 and sooty in colour : the general colour of the fur tanned, browner on the back, and some white 

 on the breast, belly, and between the limbs. It growled with a deep threatening voice, and the 

 natives related that, in danger, the animal, by means of the tail, flings its urine in the eyes of the 

 pursuers. The Colonel considered this not to be the true Dhole, and characterized it as remind- 

 ing the spectator of a low legged Hyaena with the colour of a Dog ; but he was too familiar with the 

 Hoondar (or Hyaena) to mistake it for that animal. It was reported to hunt in packs, uttering an 

 occasional deep-toned bay. 



2nd. — " The true Dhole (Chryseus Scylax, H. Smith ; Dhole of Captain Williamson, and Quihoe 

 of Dr. Daniel Johnson). These names here brought in juxta-position, shew how much confusion 

 there exists in designating this and other species among the natives of India ; a confusion they 

 extend to Hyaenas and Wolves. Qyo, Quihoe and Qao, appear to signify imitations of the ani- 

 mal's voice when hunting ; Dhole, a Praerit name ; but it is evident that where the names of Hoondar 

 and Beriah (Hyaena and Wolf) are considered synonymous, species still more indistinctly marked 

 may well be expected to be confounded. The Scylax is described to be in size between the Wolf 

 and Jackal, slightly made, of a light bay colour, with a sharp face, and fierce keen eyes ; in form 

 approaching a Grey-hound; the tail straight, not bushy; the ears wide, pointed, open, and 

 forming a triangle ; the skin dark ; nose, muzzle, back of the ears, and feet, sooty. From this 

 description the animal differs from primcevus and the other races, in being more slender and 

 higher on the legs, in having a sharper muzzle, a long close-haired tail, and large dark ears. It 

 is reported to hunt in packs of greater numbers, to utter a cry, while on the scent, resembling the 

 voice of a Fox-hound, intermixed with occasional snarling yelps. Dr. Daniel Johnson witnessed 

 a pack attacking a wild Boar. 



" The drawing we possess of Scylax was taken from a carefully executed Indian water colour 

 painting, observed in a collection on sale in London, some years before Captain Williamson's 

 1 Oriental Field Sports' was published. Colonel Deare, then a Captain, was about this time in 



