218 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XIV, July I960 
(1836: 46) Cants otahitensis; his ("Naturg. 
Raubth.”: 14 1) Canis familiaris orthotus ota- 
hitensis; Canis P aci ficus, the "Poe dog” of the 
Pacific islands, of Smith (1845: 210, 296); and 
Canis familiaris otahitensis of Giebel (1859: 
844). 
THE POLYNESIAN DOGS AND THOSE OF 
MELANESIA AND NEW GUINEA 
That Fitzinger (1867: 817) also has an ex- 
tensive synonymy for two other Oceanic species 
besides the two breeds he distinguishes in Poly- 
nesia is a further reminder of the ramifications 
of the problems connected with the history of 
Polynesian dogs. Fitzinger classifies the dingo 
as Canis Novae-Hollandiae and the dog of 
New Guinea and New Ireland as Canis Novae- 
Hiberniae. The latter classification combines the 
New Guinea dogs described by Captain Forrest 
with those of New Ireland described by R. P. 
Lesson and P. Garnot. Fitzinger refers to both 
the dingo and the Melanesian dog as being half- 
tamed. 
Pennant, who, it will be recalled, was familiar 
with Forrest’s reference to the fox-looking dogs 
called Naf, considers New Guinea as a dispersal 
area of dogs — and much else — to Polynesia and 
perhaps to Australia. Lesson and Garnot (Duper- 
rey, 1826, I: 123, 127, 132), who visited the 
same coastal area of Darn in Papua, New Guinea, 
report the same native name as Nafe. They de- 
scribe the dogs of Australia, Papua, and the 
Melanesian islands of New Ireland, Buka, and 
Bougainville, as being so much alike as to be- 
long perhaps to the same species. The New 
Ireland dog, which the natives call poull and eat, 
is small-bodied, with short hair that is either 
tawny or black, and with a pointed muzzle and 
short, erect ears. Courageous and carnivorous, 
it hunts on the reefs for its meal of fish and 
crabs. Writing specifically of the Australian dog, 
the scientists liken it to the chien de berger (see 
Fig. 17) as Forster did the New Zealand dog. 
Another account ( Laurillard, 1849, III: 545), 
perhaps quoting from Lesson’s later statements 
which I have not seen, varies slightly; for in- 
stance, the New Ireland dog is said to have 
spindly legs and to be smaller than the New 
Holland dog. 
From other references to Melanesia and New 
Guinea dogs I shall select two or three provoca- 
tive of comparisons with the Polynesian dogs, 
and hope to lure a zoologist to interpret the 
findings of other zoologists for which my one 
semester on the, zoology of a worm and a frog 
did not prepare me. 
Small black and white dogs are reported from 
the interior of British New Guinea and from 
Goodenough Island. A. S. Meek in 1896 found 
them "fairly numerous” in the latter island 
where, it was thought, no white man had been. 
Later, Sir Hubert Murray, governor of British 
New Guinea from 1907 to 1940, sent to Aus- 
tralia specimens of black and white dogs found 
around Mt. Scratchley. Presumably these are the 
same specimens that De Vis classified in 1911 
as Canis familiaris Linnaeus ( quoted from Le 
Soeuf and Burrell, 1923: 92, 93), and that 
Wood-Jones in 1929, without mentioning De 
Vis, studied as part of his series of projected 
papers comparing the domestic animals, par- 
ticularly the dog, of Pacific islanders in the hope 
of shedding some light on the racial origins and 
racial movements of the people whom the ani- 
mals accompanied. His study of the dingo has 
been mentioned; the Hawaiian study will be 
referred to later. Apparently, Wood-Jones never 
compared the measurements of dog crania from 
the three areas or continued with his project. 
According to De Vis, the dog is black and 
white, with black predominant. The rather bushy 
tail reaches the middle of the lower leg. The 
dew-claw is absent. The neck is thick and short, 
the head comparatively small, and the muzzle 
deep and narrow. The eyes are slightly oblique, 
and the ears short and erect. The short hair is 
"closely adpressed, without under fur, longer on 
neck, forming ruff between shoulder and ear.” 
Head and body measure 650 mm.; the height 
at the shoulder is 290 mm. 
Wood-Jones ( 1929: 331), who gives a series 
of measurements, with two sketches, of the two 
crania (Nos. 3751 and 4083, Queensland Mu- 
seum ) , concludes that the skulls are those of 
small dogs "of the terrier type, with fairly 
elongated sharp noses and well developed mus- 
cular crests and ridges.” This Papuan breed, ex- 
cept for its "relatively large upper carnassial 
tooth typical of primitive canine breeds,” dif- 
