Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/222

194 the vast forests and deserts of the north consists, as a rule, of smaller vertebrates, chiefly various species of lizards, Coniluridæ and Muridæ, a fact which is strongly indicated by the almost constant presence of their bones in the excrements of the animal. I do not deny that a young Macropod or Emu occasionally forms its diet, perhaps with an additional egg or young bird; but the Dingo chiefly depends on smaller animals for its existence. Its habits are sneaking and cowardly, and I hardly consider it capable of attacking a kangaroo its own size. It will kill goats or sheep, but I am inclined to believe that its tactics are more like the cunning stealthiness of the fox than the ferocious dash of the wolf.

The colonists of the southern parts of the continent are seriously troubled by the depredations of the Dingo on their sheep-farms, and the question has been very much disputed whether these Dingoes belong to the aboriginal species of the continent, or, as commonly believed, are the offspring of various crossings between Dingoes and European dogs. The latter supposition is rendered probable by the fact that Dingoes propagate with European dogs of different breeds, that is, the half-bred Dingoes of the aborigines will breed with the mongrel European dogs also kept by their masters. The question is, will these bastards on their occasional visits in the bush breed with the wild Dingoes? It is possible; but even supposing it to be so, I feel inclined to consider it to be the only way in which this interbreeding takes place, and consequently that its effects are very small, far smaller than generally supposed, and so small as in course of time to be almost obliterated. I am led to believe this because the Dingo type is always dominant, and because European dogs never would breed with wild Dingoes. They heartily detest them, may with advantage be employed in their chase, and only by force of circumstances breed with the half-tame individuals in the camps of the aborigines. In the north and north-west, European dogs had been in the country ten and thirty years respectively, and yet in the bush not a single specimen of Dingo was observed or shot which did not have all the specific characters of the species. These characters are very constant, and I have never seen two Dingoes differing more in form and colour than perhaps two foxes, a circumstance which to