596 Asiatic Society. [No. 126. 



The Australian Dingo is generally referred to this particular group of Canines, but 

 differs from the rest (if more than one species) hitherto examined, in possessing a 

 second true molar in the lower jaw, wherein the Colsun or Buansu differs from all 

 others of its natural family (so far as known), wild or tame, with the exception of a 

 Brazilian fossil species recently discovered by Dr. Lund. This character alone 

 supplies an insurmountable objection to the hypothesis of Domestic Dogs having 

 derived from the so called Canis primcevus. 



2. Canis Lupus; the Wolf: considered as a peculiar species (C. pallipes) by Col. 

 Sykes. Mr. Walter Elliot, however, remarks, that " this species does not appear to 

 differ from the common Wolf. Three young ones which I had alive for some time 

 agreed very well with the description of the Canis pallipes of Col. Sykes, but several 

 adults that I shot differed in their colours and general character. The head was large, 

 the muzzle thicker, the colours in some cases more inclining to red, particularly on 

 the fore-legS; which in some cases were deep red ; and the same colour was found on 

 the muzzle from the eyes to the nose. Others have more rufous on the hind-legs, 

 together with some black on the thighs, rump, and tip of the tail [European Wolves 

 vary in like manner]. Length from muzzle to insertion of tail thirty-six to thirty- 

 seven inches, ditto of tail sixteen to seventeen inches and a half; height of shoulder 

 twenty-four to twenty-six inches; length of the head ten inches; circumference of 

 ditto, sixteen or seventeen inches; weight of an adult female 42 lbs." 



The Wolf appears to be numerous on the open plains of India, but to be generally 

 unknown in the wooded hilly parts. Col. Sykes informs us, that " they are not met 

 with in the woods of the Ghauts" of Dukhun; nor is the species mentioned in Mr. 

 Hodgson's < Classified Cata'ogue of the Mammals of Nepal' {J. A. S., X, 908).* Col. 



London, and the copy being shewn him, he first conveyed the information that it represented the 

 Dhole, or, as he termed it, the true Dhole, distinct in form from the other species already men- 

 tioned. In Europe, that name was then only known to a very few persons who had previously 

 resided in India. Specimens occur, it seems, very rarely, and these only in the Rhamghany hills, 

 and sometimes in the Western Ghauts." This may be one of the Himalayan races mentioned by 

 Mr. Ogilby and others. 



3rd.— " The Dhole of Ceylon (Canis Ceylonicus, Shaw). First described by Vosmaer. This 

 species is evidently much allied to the last mentioned, although the account of it was not taken 

 from an adult. The stuffed specimen was not much larger than a domestic Cat, measuring about 

 twenty-two inches from nose to tail, the tail itself sixteen inches, gradually tapering to a point; 

 the colour yellowish-grey with a cast of brown, owing to some hairs of that colour being longer 

 than the rest ; the feet strongly tinged with brown ; the hair close but soft to the touch; the 

 head long and pointed ; the snout and under chin brown, but the top of the head yellowish-ash 

 colour, which, passing beyond the ears, forms a spot below them and terminates in a point below 

 the eyes; the ears were small, elevated, and pointed. In this specimen, the last molar of the 

 lower jaw was also wanting [from immaturity ?] The claws resembled those of a Cat more than of a 

 Dog, and there were five toes on the hind as well as on the fore feet. We have examined, in Hol- 

 land, the skin of a Dog which was said to have come from Ceylon, and corresponded sufficiently 

 to admit of its being the same species, although it was at least four inches longer, and the colours 

 were less grey and more fulvous ; the tail was long and without a bush, and the claws blunt, but 

 with five on each foot. It is evident that the discrepancies between the two were owing to nonage 

 in Boddaert's specimen. The skull we have not seen." 



All these notices require exceedingly to be verified upon examination of specimens. 



* " The common Wolf is numerous in the plains, but I have never seen or even heard of them 

 in the Himalaya. 



" The Jackal is rare there, and I have never met with them but in the low and warm valleys." — 

 The Rev. R. Everest on the power of enduring cold in the Mammalia of Hot Countries. — Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., January, 1842. 



