Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/301

* DINGLINGER. 257 DINICHTHYS. principal works, including "The Court of the Grand Jlogul," a splendid table service consist- ing of more than l.!0 figures (1701-08); the "Bath of Diana" (1720), the tea service in gold, enanR'l, and ebony : and the "Joys of 1-ife," are preserved in the Dresden Museum and in the Hermitage at Saint Petersburg. They are dis- tinguished by great excellence of worlcmanship. DINGO, din'go (native Australian name). Tlie wild dog of Australia {Cants dingo), re- markable not only for being the only species of dog existing both wild and domesticated, but also for being the only carnivorous placental mammal in Australia. Some writers have re- garded the dingo as an oxani])le of the domestic dog run wild, but the occurrence of its remains in the Quaternary strata of Australia, and even in cavern deposits of Pleistocene time, seems to make any such position untenable, though it is not impossible that the dingo may have been brought to Australia by man when he first set foot on that continent. The improbability of Australia possessing a native placental mammal of such large size, and the fact that it is not foimd in Tasmania or New Zealand, lend force to the belief that it is a dog of Asiatic origin brought to Australia by the aborigines, and there become partly feral. With the advance of civilization, the dingo, like the native races to which it is a companion, has gradually disap- IK?are(l from large parts of southern and eastern Australia, and its numbers are elsewhere steadily decreasing. As it is a serious menace to flocks of sheep, the settlers have everywhere made war upon it, and its complete extermination as a wild animal is not improbable. Its local extermina- tion, however, has more than once been followed by so great an increase of grass-eating marsu- pials, upon which it preyed, that special efTorts have been necessary to kill them off in turn. The dingo is about two and one-half feet in length and somewhat less than two feet high. The ears are rather large and erect, and the tail is bushy. The color varies from pale brown to black, tawny shades being common. Windle says an average skull measures 302 millimeters in length and 172 millimeters in width. The dingo does not bark or growl in its wild state, but utters wolfish howls, especially at night. Tame dingos, placed among other dogs, how- ever, soon learn to bark. They arc great hunters, pursuing their prey in packs, sometimes reaching 80 or 100 in number, and running with the head carried high and the ears erect. They kill, when opportunity offers, more than they can possibly use; are cunning and courageous; and themselves afford good sport for a pack of hounds. The dingo is domesticated by the native Aus- tralians in all parts of the continent, the pup- pie~ Ipcing fouiiil in hollow trees and similar places where the female dingos make their lairs. They are verj- kindly treated, and are not only affet'tionate and faithful companions, but are of the sreatest use to the natives, by assisting them in finding opossums, rats, snakes, and lizards for food. Nevertheless the black fellows hunt, kill, and eat the wild dingoes, disemboweling and then roasting the carcass whole in the earth under a fire. Consult: Smyth. The Ahorifiines of Victoria (Melbourne, 187S) ; Wheelwright, Bush Wanrlrrinf/s (London, 1805). See DoG; and Plate of Woia'E.s axd Dogs. DINGEAS, d^n-griis'. A town of Luzon, Philippines, in the Province of llocos Norte, 11 miles southeast of Laoag. It is situated in a fertile plain, surrounded by mountains, which is subject to inundations. Dingras was founded in 1598. Population, in 1898, 12,000. DING'WALL. A royal burgh, the county town of the united counties of Ross and Cro- marty, Scotland, at the head of the Cromarty Firth, 11 miles northwest of Inverness (Map: Scotland, D 2). It lies low, amid rich, fertile, and well-wooded ground, at the entrance to the beautiful valley of Strathpeffer, the famous sul- phurous springs of which are five miles to the west. A short canal brings vessels drawing nine feet of water up to the town. Its prosperity depends on agriculture. Population, in 1891, 2283; in 1901, 2519. Near Dingwall is a vitri- fied fort, on a conical hill, and there are traces of an ancient castle where the Karls of Koss held their courts. DIN'L&S (Lat.. from Gk. Aavlas, Deinias) and DERCYL'LIS (Lat., from Ok. AepxvWic, Derkyllis). Characters in an old tireek novel, in twenty-four books, now lost, entitled Incredible Things in Thule, by Diogenes Antonius, a Syrian of the second century B.C. The work served as a source for various later authors. DINICHTHYS, di-nik'this (Neo-Lat., from Gk. 6«y6f, deinox, terrible + ixMi, ichthys, fish). A genus of fossil dipnoan lislies of large size belonging in the order Arthrodira, and found in the uppermost Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks of North America, and less commonly in Europe. The body is estimated to have had a length of 15 to 18 feet, but few traces of other portions than the heavy armor-plates of the head and anterior part of the trunk have been observed. The general form is similar to that of Coccosteus, with which it is quite closely related. The head was often over three feet in width and four or more feet long, and the bones of the skull were heavy plates, well joined to- gether to form a solid dorsal head-shield. The eyes were of large size, as indicated by the form of the orbital notches in the margin of the head- shield. The dentition, which resembles that of the modern Protopterus, was very formidable. It consisted, in the upper jaw, of two large an- terior triangular teeth that functioned as in- cisors, and two lateral oblong [)lates with sharp enameled cutting edges. The lower jaws are very strong and have, at their anterior ends, prominent sharp teeth that interlock with those of the upper jaw, and behind these the upper edges of the jaws are hardened by enamel and sharpened to form very eilicient smooth or den- ticulate cutting edges, that must have engaged with the corresponding sharp edges of the upper jaw in a shear-like motion. The plates of the ventral surfiiee of the head and those of the anterior part of the trunk resemble the cor- responding plates in the genus Coccosteus, and there is a hinge-joint between the head-plates and the body-plates. The larger number of these fossils have been found in the Upper Devonian Cleveland shale of Ohio, from which formation they were originally described by Prof. .T. S. Newberry. The best- known species are Dinichthys Hertzeri and Di- nichthys terrelli. Consult : Newberry. "The Palaeozoic Fishes of North America," Monograph