A WILD DOG FROM BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 
By C. W. De VIS, M.A. 
The drawing (plate i.) represents, approximately, an example of 
the dog made known to us by His Excellency Sir William 
MacGrregor, while Lieutenant-Governor of British New Gruinea, 
in his Annual Report for the year 1897-8, p. 27. On 26th 
October, 1897, His Excellency was on Mount Scratchley, at an 
elevation of 7,000 feet. He remarks that "Animals are rare," and, 
summarising the mammalian fauna observable, includes " wild dog " 
in the list. We may safely infer that in that locality the dog is 
rare. Whether it is so or has ever been observed in other localities 
I do not know, but have reason to think that it has not. The 
mounted skin, which allowed the artist to form a more or less true 
conception of the living animal, had long been macerating in 
alcohol, and was entirely boneless ; naturally it baffled the utmost 
cunning of our late taxidermist in his effort to endow it with a 
semblance of life. Fortunately it was accompanied by the skeleton, 
which had been removed from it, and from the two we are able to 
see pretty clearly what were the form and proportions, -clothing and 
colour, of the dog in its living state. 
Its size is that of one of the smaller breeds of our domestic 
dogs ; the body deep and long, measuring over head from tip of 
nose to root of tail 25£ inches (650 mm.), the legs strong and short, 
the height at the shoulder being but 11| inches (290 mm.), the leg 
itself 7 inches (173 mm.) ; a comparatively small head with a 
narrow and deep muzzle is borne on a short thick neck ; the eyes 
moderate in size, are slightly oblique ; the ears rather short, erect ; 
the tail reaching to the middle of the lower leg; the mammas 10 
(2 pectoral, 8 inguinal) ; dew claw none. The hair on the body is 
short and closely adpressed, without under-fur ; on the neck it is 
longer, forming a ruf£ between the shoulder and ear ; on the tail 
the hairs are long and towards the end rather bushy. Colour, black 
and white, the black predominant ; the white portions are a long 
