i8o 
Notes. 
[March, 
Sagacity in Animals. —Mr. Haygrath (“ Bush-Life in Aus- 
tralia ”) says “ We had a half-tamed native dog, ‘ dingo ’ or 
‘ warragee,’ ” chained in a small enclosure into which a merino 
ram accidentally strayed. Not seeing his way out he “prepared 
to attack his natural enemy.” The dog “ stood out as far as his 
chain would admit ” and awaited the onset. The ram “ retreated 
backwards to some distance, and rushed on his foe . . . with an 
impetus which would have felled an ox.” When the blow 
“ seemed inevitable,” the dog suddenly crouched down and 
“ seized his antagonist firmly by the throat as he flew over.” 
The ram would have been killed but for our interposition (p, 116). 
Speaking of the “ dingo ” in his simulation of death, he says — 
“ Its most striking peculiarity is its tenacity of life.” “ As a 
last resource it has a remarkable trick of shamming dead, . . . 
when it may be dragged by the heels and well-belaboured without 
flinching — lolling its head listlessly down as if quite lifeless, until 
a fair opportunity of crawling away presents itself” {ibid.). 
Speaking of the half-wild oxen, he instances the remarkable 
instindt they possess of locality. He says — “ They have been 
known ‘ to make back ’ through every obstacle for hundreds of 
miles ; and animals that have escaped from the very slaughter- 
house in Sydney have been found again, within a short time, on 
their former feeding-grounds at a vast distance in the interior.” 
That sometimes settlers, when changing their stations, send 
their cattle by a circuitous route, “ by way of mystifying their 
troublesome organ of locality;” but it has been found, “both by 
tracks and by sight, that the stragglers . . . have returned by 
the diredt line through a country of which they had not the 
slightest knowledge.” Another time he was expedting supplies, 
when “ the pack bullock, with his load on his back, arrived with- 
out any driver.” In anxiety as to his fate he followed the ani- 
mal’s track, which “had never been once at fault, or even stopped 
to feed.” Sixty miles from the station he “ found the driver 
alive and well, but in great tribulation for the loss of his charge, 
and was satisfied when told “ that the animal, more sagacious 
than himself, had reached his journey’s end safely” {ibid., p. 57) 
Our ably-condudted contemporary, “ Science,” gives abstracts 
of papers — by O. C. Marsh, on the Limbs of Sauranodon ; by 
E. S. Morse, on the Identity of the Ascending Process of the 
Astragalus in Birds with the Intermedium ; by H. C. Chapman, 
on the Placenta and Generative Apparatus of the Elephant, and, 
by the same author, on the Structure of the Orang-Outang. 
According to Prof. Elias Loomis the centre of a cyclone has 
never been found within 6° of the Equator. 
We learn that the Medical Officer of Health at Govan Hills 
receives a salary of £12. yearly, in consideration of which he is 
to give medical opinions when required, to make examinations, 
submit reports, and attend court if needful ! 
