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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![the pairing' seasoiL and at sncli times it never returns. Thus it never becomes perfectly domesticated, still is very useful to the natives, for it has a keen scent and traces every kind of game; it never barks, and hunts less wildly than our dogs, but very rapidly, fre(iuently capturing tlie game on the run. The Dingo will follow nobody else but its owner.” In this part of North Queensland, the Dingo is used in hunting the Cassowary. Other travellers give a similar account. AVhen these half-tamed animals come into contact with the white man’s dogs, there are free fights, but they also freely inter- breed. In fact it is now a difficult thing to o])tain a pure Dingo in Australia. How did the Dingo come to be in Australia? One must first answer another question. How long has he been here? Fortunately, with regard to this Ave have definite information. The earliest explorers found them here. Some of Dampier’s men saAv in the Xorth-AVest ‘Havo or three beasts like hungry Avolves, and lean like so many skeletons.” But there is evidence AA'hich takes the Dingo back to times before the a])original. as Avell as before the Avhite man, set foot in Australia. The bones of the animal have l)cen met Avith in a fossil state in seAmral localities in A^ictoria in AAdiat Sir Fred. AIcCoy considered to be Pliocene deposits, and associated Avith the bones of the extinct Thijlacoleo, Diprotodon and Noto- tlierium. And similar remains Avith similar associates Avere found in the caAms of the AA^ellington A^alley, Ncav South AVales. “In a Avell-section at ToAver Hill in A’’ictoria,” says Brough Smyth, “63 feet of volcanic ash Avas passed through, and then 60 feet of blue and yelloAV clay; here Avere found the skull and bones of the Dingo.” There is no evidence that man Avas in existence in Pliocene times in Australia, or indeed anyAA’here else. Hence Ave must conclude that the Dingo reached this continent Avithout the aid of man, and by Pliocene times. He iieA-er got as far as Tasmania, Avhere the marsupial AVolf and DeAul are still extant; so that he did not come in from the South. It is probable then that he is the descendant of some jMiocene or early Pliocene Dog of South-eastern Asia, AAdio Avandered into Australia Avhen the land bridge still existed](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28108759_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)


