The animals of Australia : mammals, reptiles and amphibians / by A.H.S. Lucas ; assisted by W.H. Dudley Le Souëf.
- Arthur Henry Shakespeare Lucas
- Date:
- 1909
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The animals of Australia : mammals, reptiles and amphibians / by A.H.S. Lucas ; assisted by W.H. Dudley Le Souëf. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![You may meet them singly, or in pairs, or more rarely in small packs of five or six. Even if yon are alone, they will not attack you, liut look you ovei* calmly, and then trot off, head high in air, not deigning to take furtlier notice. In their native haunts they are fine looking animals, those in the upland wooded districts being larger, stronger, and fiercer. In size an average dingo e(pmls an English sheep-dog, standing over two feet high, and measui'ing five feet in total length. The head is pointed like that of the Fox; the ears are short and erect; the whiskers on the muzzle are one to two inches long. The body is well covered with hair of two kinds, a grey under-fur, and longer hairs which give the liody colouring. The tail is of moderate length, bushy hut hardly with the brush of the Fox. The colour varies from yellow or brownish- red to even black, the AVestern Dogs being darker. The under- parts and inner surfaces of the lim1)s are lighter, and may be whitish. The feet and the tip of the tail are often white. Alliinos occur, and these fre<piently breed true, so that a white race might be estalilished. Females seem always to predominate. The Dingoes are expert hnnters, living on the marsupials, and indeed any creatures they can rnn down or surprise. They frequently hunt ground birds, such as the grass-parrakeets, stalking them, and then s])ringing upon them as they rise. They play ha^'OC among the sheep which are brought into their domain. A Dingo will throw a sheeji over on its back, and rip out the belly, having, according to the squatters, a special weaknc>ss for the kidney. In the same way he tears down the calves, attacking the young animal perhaps when the cow has left it in order to seek water, and has even been known to succeed in cutting out a calf from a herd of cattle. And the apparently most tamed of them cannot be trusted in a fowl- yard. The bite is that of a wolf, the jaws coming together like those of a steel trap, and a sheep seldom recovers even if bitten only once. The Dingo can make powerful leaps, and his pace is good. Still he cannot compete with a fast horse, and the squatter not unfrequently runs him down in half an hour to an hour on a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28108759_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)


