DINGO, din'gif (native Australian name). The wild dog of Australia (Canis 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 .lanonal in Australia. Some writers have re garded the dingo as an example of the domestic dog run wild, but tire occurrence of its remains in the Quaternary strata of Australia. and even ravers 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 found 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 peared 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 efforts 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 eommon. Windle says an average skull measures 302 millimeters in length and 172 millimeters in width. The dingo does not hark or growl in its wild state, but utters wolfish howls, especially at night. Tame dingos, placed among other clogs, how ever, soon learn to bark. They are great hunters, pursuing their prey in packs. sometimes reaching sO or 100 in number, and running with tine head carried high and the ears erect. They kill. when opportunity offers„ more than they can possibly use; are eunning and courageous; and themselves afford good sport fur a pack of hounds.
The dingo is domesticated by the native Aus tralians in all parts of the continent, the pup pies being' found in hollow trees and similar places where the female dingos make their lairs. They are very kindly treated, and are not only affe(:tionate and faithful companions, but are of the greatest use to the natives, by assisting them in fin ding opossums, rats. snakes. and lizards for food. the black fellows bunt, kill, and eat the wild dingoes, disemboweling and then roasting the carcass whole in the earth under a fire. Consult : Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria (Melbourne, 1S7S) ; Wheelwright, Bush Wanderings (London, 1SG5). See Doe and Plate of WOLVES .Ni Does.