Australia, though somewhat lower on the legs; but whether this or the Beluch wants the second tubercular tooth, has not been ascertained." Nat. Libr., Mam., IX, 173-5. In the tropical countries eastward of the Boorampooter, it has been generally understood that no wild canine animal exists, as appears to be truly the case with the Jackal; but I have information (and trust to receive specimens) of two species, differing much in size and habits, from the interior of Burmah, besides which I am told that "a Fox resembling that of Bengal, but of a darker colour, and altogether more resembling the English species except in size," inhabits the Siamese hills. "Wolves" are mentioned in Capt. Low's list of the animals of Tenasserim (Journ. Roy. As. Soc., III, 50), “and Wolves, or perhaps wild Dogs," are elsewhere stated by him to inhabit the same range of territory. In Dr. Richardson's Mission to the Court of Siam,' (J. A. S., IX, 5), Hares are mentioned," and Wild Dogs are said to be numerous here [near Camboorie], larger, with longer hair than the common Dog, but equally varying in colour." These would seem to be scarcely referrible to the present group.† In Sumatra, we have seen that they exist, and Sir Stamford Raffles alludes to more than one race in Java (Lin. Trans. XIII, 249), remarking that how far the Sumatran animal "differs from either of those of Java, Dr. Horsfield will be able to decide." I am unaware, however, that the latter naturalist has published any notice on the subject. Dr. Solomon Muller, if I remember rightly, mentions them by the name of Canis rutilus, as alike inhabiting Sumatra, Java, and Borneo (?); and a Java specimen was first taken to Europe by M. Leschenhault, "in size and in proportions equal to a common Wolf, but the ears are smaller; the colour is fulvous-brown, blackish on the back, feet, and tail." Within the Indian Peninsula, the Colsun of Sykes, according to Mr. W. Elliot, "was not known in the Southern Mahratta country until of late years. It has now become very common."

* Vide my Report for January, ante, p. 102.

In a notice of some of the animals of the Tenasserim provinces, published in the Bengal Sporting Magazine for August, 1841, page 44, we read that "The Wolf is said by the natives to have been in the country of the Kareans, as also the Wild Dog; but their accounts are not much to be relied on." It is at least probable, however, that wild canine animals of some kind are

alluded to.

↑ Madras Journal, No. XXIV, 100. I may here cite a very interesting notice of this animal in the Madras Journal,' No. XIV, 81: "The animal termed by us the Wild Dog," writes Captain A. Mackintosh, "is known to the natives by the name of Kollussnah, Kollusra, and Kollusa. It is common in the Kotool district, and all along the range of western Ghauts. It is about the size of a Panther [which would be very much larger than any I have seen], with very powerful fore-quarters, narrow tapering loins, black and pointed muzzle, and small erect ears. The tail is long, and at the extremity there is a bunch of hair several inches in length. The Kullussnah is of a darkish red colour, possesses great speed, and hunts in packs of five, eight, fifteen, and even to the number of twenty-five; is extremely active, artful, and cunning in mastering its prey. It is during the night-time they move about in search of food; but, should an animal approach near them, an hour or two after sunrise, or a short time before sunset, they will attack it -all animals seem instinctively to dread them. During the day-time, they remain quiet in their hiding-places. When the Kollussnah discovers an animal worthy of being captured, the circumstance is announced to the pack by a barking, whistling voice; the others are on the alert, advance rapidly and post themselves slily round the spot, and gradually close in on the animal. Upon seeing one or two of the Kolussnahs he gets frightened, but much more so when, running away at speed, he encounters one of his enemies in whichever direction he attempts to escape. The consequence is, that he stands quite amazed. Some of the Kollussnahs run in close to him, and shed water on their bushy tails, which they swing about and jerk into his eyes; he is successively saluted

To sum up, Colonel H. Smith remarks, that-"On reviewing the notices of the present group of Wild Dogs, whether they be one or several species, it is evident that they extend their habitat over an immense surface of Asia; and since they are found to the westward of the Indus, it is likely they inhabit the deep forests along the Caspian, and continuing in the same parallel of latitude, that they have existed and possibly may still be found in the mountains of Asia Minor. If, now, we compare the foregoing descriptions [Nat. Libr., Mam., vol. IX,] with the account of Aukoç Eovpos or Aureus of Oppian, which he relates was a resident of the rocky jungles of Mount Amanus and Taurus of Cilicia, a province where he, the poet, naturalist, and sportsman, was born, we cannot suppose that he spoke wholly from hearsay, and ignorant of the characters of his Golden Wolf, mistook it for a Jackal, then not frequent so far to the North; but which in comparison is insignificant, does not fear the heat, nor retires during the appearance of the Dog-star*; is not of a bright fulvous colour, but greyish in Natolia ; is not to be mistaken on account of its howling; burrows in the vicinity of human habitations; is the reverse of a shy and solitary nature; and finally is not noticed by him under another name.† The uncertainty and confusion respecting this group commenced with the ancients, who ranged in all probability not less than three very different canines under the name of Thoes. Pliny speaking of a Thos, which he viewed as a kind of Wolf, merely remarks, that it had a longer body, shorter legs, sprang with velocity, and lived by hunting; adding, not dangerous to man.

in the same manner, when he approaches them, or they run into him. The unlucky beast is soon blinded by the peculiar escharotic quality of the application; for he begins to stagger and run round and round, and is now beset by all the Kollussnahs who make a loud barking and snapping noise while they pull the animal down and tear it in pieces. When few in number, they have been known to gratify their hunger before the poor animal fell down and expired, each of them tearing away a mouthful while their victim remained standing. There are very few instances of their ever having attacked the villagers' cattle, but they will kill stray calves if they fall in with them. The Kolies never molest the Kollussnah, in fact they are glad to see them in their neighbourhood, being aware of the enmity that exists between them and the Tiger, for they kill that animal cecasionally, and in consequence they are considered by the people as the protectors of their cattle and their fields, for neither Sambur, Deer, or Hog, seem disposed to approach places much frequented by the Kollussnah. They hunt and kill the Sambur, Neelgaie, Hyæna, Deer, Jackals, Hares, Hogs, Bears, Porcupines, and Quails. They killed a Tiger in June, last year, in the Taloongun jungles." For a detailed account of the Buansu or wild Dog of Nipal, by Mr. Hodgson, vide As Ra. XVIII, pt. II, where also are given comparative figures of this animal, the common Indian Fox, and the Jackal. A writer in the Bengal Sporting Magazine, for 1838, p. 404, mentions, that on removing the skin of a "Wild Dog," which he shot near Saugor, "hundreds and hundreds of thorns, of bushes and the spear-grass, were observed lying in the thin membrane between it and the muscles; everywhere, but chiefly in the front part of the fore and hind legs; there was no symptom of inflammation from them, except in two wounds where a little matter had formed: the coat was quite smooth, and there was no vestige of parasites about the animal." The same writer mentions the cry of these creatures when in pursuit of prey, as "the palpable bark of the Dog, but shorter and not so deep, and I thought at the time, as they rushed by me on the right and left, that there was something very angry in the tone of it. Their run was perfectly beautiful, and al together they disappeared, eight in number, over the hill, still preserving the form of a row." * Sirium orientem metuit.

t Oppian's Thous was a spotted animal.

"Luporum genus est (Thos) procerius longitudine brevitas crurum, dissimile velox salta, venatu vivens innocuum homini." Pliny. Ælian's Thoes may be Jackals: but the Thoes of Homer, described as put to flight by the Lion, while they surrounded the Stag at bay, cannot be Jackals but the Chryseus. So also is the Thos of Aristotle, when he notices their engaging the Lion.

All these characters are perfectly applicable to the Chryseus of our type, and to its varieties. The mistaking of Oppian commenced with Belon; and Kæmpfer, being unacquainted with the existence of the rufous Wild Dog, referred Aureus to the Jackal, and misled Linnæus.*

"It is even more likely," continues Col. Smith, "that from this group the mixture with a domestic race might be reported to have been obtained, which the ancients, and even Aristotle, repeatedly assert to be the Alopecides or the Chaonian and Spartan breeds, but which, from their strength and courage, could never have resulted from crossing Dogs with Foxes.

"There is some reason to presume that the Chryseus formerly existed in Southern Europe: for to what other species can we refer the kind of Wild Dogs noticed by Scaliger, as existing in the woods of Montifalcone in Italy. There resided,' he says, ' for ages about Montifalcone, a species of wild Dogs; animals differing from Wolves in manners, voice, and colours; never mixing with them, and being particularly fond of human flesh.' This last character may have been a gratuitous addition of his informants: he does not, in this paragraph, notice the particular colour, but, in a another part of the work, wild Dogs of a rufous colour are incidentally recorded. A family of the name of Montifalcone bore a Wolf salient gules; while another of the same name had red Dogs for supporters, in a collection of blazoned Italian arms in the Library of St. Mark at Venice."

I shall now proceed to invite the attention of observers to the following notices by the same in defatigable and learned Zoologist:

1st.-" With some hesitation we place here the short notice of the Wak, a canine designated as a Dhole, but possibly a very distinct species. It was first mentioned to us by the late Lieut. Col. Deare, of the 8th Dragoons, who was a native of the East Indies, a keen sportsman, and many years resident in that part of the world. A printed account of a similar animal, observed in captivity, has since appeared in one of the Annuals: both agree in the description, one having been killed in Central India, the other seen in the Southern Provinces. This Dhole was represented to be a robust thick-bodied animal, nearly equal in height to a harrier hound, but heavier in weight; the head broad and ponderous; the forehead flat, with a greater distance from the ears to the eyes than from these to the nose; this was blunt, dark-coloured, and rather broad, the rictus or gape black, opening to beneath the eyes, which were of a greenish-yellow, set in dark eye-lids, and offering a most ferocious aspect; the teeth powerful; the legs and claws remarkably strong, resembling a Bull-Dog's; and the tail rather short, but more bushy towards the end, and sooty in colour : the general colour of the fur tanned, browner on the back, and some white on the breast, belly, and between the limbs. It growled with a deep threatening voice, and the natives related that, in danger, the animal, by means of the tail, flings its urine in the eyes of the pursuers. The Colonel considered this not to be the true Dhole, and characterized it as reminding the spectator of a low legged Hyæna with the colour of a Dog; but he was too familiar with the Hoondar (or Hyæna) to mistake it for that animal. It was reported to hunt in packs, uttering an occasional deep-toned bay.

2nd.-"The true Dhole (Chryseus Scylax, H. Smith; Dhole of Captain Williamson, and Quihoe of Dr. Daniel Johnson). These names here brought in juxta-position, shew how much confusion there exists in designating this and other species among the natives of India; a confusion they extend to Hyænas and Wolves. Qyo, Quihoe and Qao, appear to signify imitations of the animal's voice when hunting; Dhole, a Praerit name; but it is evident that where the names of Hoondar and Beriah (Hyæna and Wolf) are considered synonymous, species still more indistinctly marked may well be expected to be confounded. The Scylax is described to be in size between the Wolf and Jackal, slightly made, of a light bay colour, with a sharp face, and fierce keen eyes; in form approaching a Grey-hound; the tail straight, not bushy; the ears wide, pointed, open, and forming a triangle; the skin dark ; nose, muzzle, back of the ears, and feet, sooty. From this description the animal differs from primævus and the other races, in being more slender and higher on the legs, in having a sharper muzzle, a long close-haired tail, and large dark ears. It is reported to hunt in packs of greater numbers, to utter a cry, while on the scent, resembling the voice of a Fox-hound, intermixed with occasional snarling yelps. Dr. Daniel Johnson witnessed a pack attacking a wild Boar.

"The drawing we possess of Scylax was taken from a carefully executed Indian water colour painting, observed in a collection on sale in London, some years before Captain Williamson's ⚫ Oriental Field Sports' was published. Colonel Deare, then a Captain, was about this time in

The Australian Dingo is generally referred to this particular group of Canines, but differs from the rest (if more than one species) hitherto examined, in possessing a second true molar in the lower jaw, wherein the Colsun or Buansu differs from all others of its natural family (so far as known), wild or tame, with the exception of a Brazilian fossil species recently discovered by Dr. Lund. This character alone supplies an insurmountable objection to the hypothesis of Domestic Dogs having derived from the so called Canis primævus.

2. Canis Lupus; the Wolf: considered as a peculiar species (C. pallipes) by Col. Sykes. Mr. Walter Elliot, however, remarks, that "this species does not appear to differ from the common Wolf. Three young ones which I had alive for some time agreed very well with the description of the Canis pallipes of Col. Sykes, but several adults that I shot differed in their colours and general character. The head was large, the muzzle thicker, the colours in some cases more inclining to red, particularly on the fore-legs, which in some cases were deep red; and the same colour was found on the muzzle from the eyes to the nose. Others have more rufous on the hind-legs, together with some black on the thighs, rump, and tip of the tail [European Wolves vary in like manner]. Length from muzzle to insertion of tail thirty-six to thirtyseven inches, ditto of tail sixteen to seventeen inches and a half; height of shoulder twenty-four to twenty-six inches; length of the head ten inches; circumference of ditto, sixteen or seventeen inches; weight of an adult female 42 lbs."

The Wolf appears to be numerous on the open plains of India, but to be generally unknown in the wooded hilly parts. Col. Sykes informs us, that "they are not met with in the woods of the Ghauts" of Dukhun; nor is the species mentioned in Mr. Hodgson's Classified Catalogue of the Mammals of Nepâl' (J. 4. S., X, 908).• Col. London, and the copy being shewn him, he first conveyed the information that it represented the Dhole, or, as he termed it, the true Dhole, distinct in form from the other species already mentioned. In Europe, that name was then only known to a very few persons who had previously resided in India. Specimens occur, it seems, very rarely, and these only in the Rhamghany hills, and sometimes in the Western Ghauts." This may be one of the Himalayan races mentioned by Mr. Ogilby and others.

First described by Vosmäer. This

3rd." The Dhole of Ceylon (Canis Ceylonicus, Shaw). species is evidently much allied to the last mentioned, although the account of it was not taken from an adult. The stuffed specimen was not much larger than a domestic Cat, measuring about twenty-two inches from nose to tail, the tail itself sixteen inches, gradually tapering to a point; the colour yellowish-grey with a cast of brown, owing to some hairs of that colour being longer than the rest; the feet strongly tinged with brown; the hair close but soft to the touch; the head long and pointed; the snout and under chin brown, but the top of the head yellowish-ash colour, which, passing beyond the ears, forms a spot below them and terminates in a point below the eyes; the ears were small, elevated, and pointed. In this specimen, the last molar of the lower jaw was also wanting [from immaturity ?] The claws resembled those of a Cat more than of a Dog, and there were five toes on the hind as well as on the fore feet. We have examined, in Hotland, the skin of a Dog which was said to have come from Ceylon, and corresponded sufficiently to admit of its being the same species, although it was at least four inches longer, and the colours were less grey and more fulvous; the tail was long and without a bush, and the claws blunt, but with five on each foot. It is evident that the discrepancies between the two were owing to nonage in Boddært's specimen. The skull we have not seen."

All these notices require exceedingly to be verified upon examination of specimens.

"The common Wolf is numerous in the plains, but I have never seen or even heard of them in the Himalaya.

"The Jackal is rare there, and I have never met with them but in the low and warm valleys.”— The Rev. R. Everest on the power of enduring cold in the Mammalia of Hot Countries.—Mag. Nat. Hist., January, 1842.

Smith seems to believe in the existence of a smaller race, "lower, with a broader back, and of a light grey colour, obscurely marked with darker cross bars, from the tips of the hairs being black; the limbs and face pale buff. A specimen, shot among the rocks on the sea-shore, near Vincovah, in the vicinity of Bombay, was in colour yellowish-grey, brindled with blackish streaks: the head was sharp: the under-parts dirty-white; the tail not very hairy, whitish below, and the markings on the body distinct. It was killed in the act of searching for offal and putrid animal matter cast on shore by the sea.'

3. C. aureus; the Jackal. Common to all India westward of the Boorampooter, and extending (without satisfactorily known variation) to Anatolia, Turkey, the Island of Candia, part of Greece, and the southernmost confines of Russia; but, I believe, unknown in Africa, where represented by allied species. Syria and the north-east of Africa are, indeed, remarkable for the variety of small indigenous canines described by Ruppell and by Hemprich and Ehrenberg; and the following has, probably, still to be added to their number (vide Kotzebue's Journey to Persia', p. 62). "In Grusia, among the beasts of prey, there is a species of Jackal which is called Tshakatka. It resembles the Wolf, but is smaller and has a much more ferocious appearance; its howl shakes the very soul. The animal is, besides, very bold, and sneaks during the night into the camp to steal the soldiers' boots. When very hungry, it enters burial grounds and digs up the bodies recently interred." It is thus a true Jackal, but there is reason to suspect a larger species than the common one.

4. C. chrysurus, Gray, vel (?) Vulpes xanthura, Gray, already noticed.

5. Vulpes Corsac, v. Bengalensis, Indicus, et Kokree. Mr. Elliot states of this species, that "it is remarkable that though the brush is generally tipped with black, a white one is occasionally found [i. e. in the Southern Mahratta country], while in other parts of India, as in Cutch, the tip is always white." In Bengal I have hitherto found it invariably black-tipped. This animal appears to be common throughout India, extending, it would seem, westward of the Indus and into Tartary. The varieties (?) mentioned by Elphinstone, as already cited, inhabiting the Western Indian desert, require investigation; as also the Dooab Fox of Hardwicke and Gray.

6. V. montanus, vel Himalaicus, vel? Nipalensis et Hodgsonii of Gray, the latter probably mere varieties of colour, and not more different from the ordinary type than the beautiful specimen exhibited on this occasion. The Neilghierry Fox is, probably, an additional species, unless it prove to be Mr. Gray's Chrysurus vel? Xanthura which however is unlikely.

From Mr. J. J. Athanass, have been received ten heads of the Indian Antelope (Antilope Cervicapra), one only being that of a female, and among those of males there is one remarkable for the deformity of its right horn, which curves shortly round to form a circle and is then broken off: this horn indeed considerably resembles that of a castrated individual which lived some years in the London Zoological Gardens, and which possessed a horn on one side only, of similar flexure, the other side having no more trace of it than in the female of this species; and it may be, therefore, that the testis of the corresponding side had been injured in the animal whose head is now exhibited, a circumstance which, in the Cervine genus, is well known to affect the

* Communicated to Col. Smith by Col. Dunsterville, H. C. S., who was present.