DINGO, 118 
, Habits.—The Australian wild dog never barks. It has all the 
habits of a skulking low-bred dog, and none of the determined air 
and ferocity of disposition of the wolf or the jackal. It is very 
destructive, particularly in its mode of ‘‘ rushing” a flock of sheep, 
when it not only wantonly kills great numbers, but scatters the 
remainder, and thus occasions additional loss. The dingoes are the 
wolves of the colony, and are, perhaps, unequalled for cunning. 
One had been beaten so severely that it was supposed the bones 
were broken, and he was left for dead. Upon the person looking 
back, after having walked some distance, his surprise was much 
excited by seeing the dingo rise, shake himself, and march into the 
bush, evading all pursuit. A settler returning from a hunt with six 
kangaroo dogs met with a dingo, which was attacked by the dogs, 
and worried to such a degree that the cunning animal, seeing only 
one means of escape, pretended to be dead ; his assailants thinking 
he had departed the way of all dogs, gave him a parting shake and 
left him, Unfortunately for himself, the dingo was of an impatient 
disposition, and was consequently premature in his resurrection, for 
before the settler and his dogs had gone any distance, he was seen 
to rise and skulk away, but at a slow pace, on account of the rough 
treatment he had received. ‘The dogs soon re-attacked him, when 
he was handled in a manner that must have effectually prevented a 
second resurrection. A litter was found near Yass Plains, which 
the discoverer failed to destroy, thinking to return and catch the 
mother also, and thus exterminate the whole family. She must 
have been watching him, for on his returning a short time after, he 
found all the little dingoes had been carried away, and he was never 
able, although diligent search was made in the vicinity, to discover 
their place of concealment. Dingoes breed in holes of rocks, and in 
the hollow trunks of trees. The blacks find the puppies, and rear 
them with greater care than they bestow on their own children, and 
bring them under subjection. he dingo isan important member 
of the family ; he sleeps in the huts and gets plenty to eat, not only 
of meat, but of such fruit as they can obtain, ” Though treated so 
well, he often runs away, especially in the pairing season, and never 
returns ; thus he does not become perfectly domesticated. He will 
follow nobody else but his owner ; he is singularly averse to 
domestication and man’s society, when compare with other dogs. 
The pure dingo can only express his feelings in long-drawn, weird 
howls, which, in the stillness of the night, have an indescribably 
de ressing effect upon the traveller as he sits at his lonely camp fire 
pers ranges. Sturt, narrating his exploration of the interior, 
says: “ ‘These miserable and melancholy animals would come to 
water where we were, unconscious of | our presence, and gain the 
very bank of the creek pelos they Cisco eros us, rousing us by 
jackal ever made. 
pe. ipo LO prior to the arrival of the settlers and 
Tee Sti dogs, the dingo was the only animal that the blacks 
thefr domestic dogs, lly in procuring food, and to this day the wild 
sou teae ee perioe have no other attendant. Dingoes hunt less 
