the native dog of Australia, Canisdingo. «The aborigines, before they obtained dogs fromEuropeans, kept the dingo for hunting, as is still done bycoast tribes in Queensland. Name probably not used furthersouth than Shoalhaven, where the wild dog is called Mirigang.» (A. W. Howitt.)
1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 280:
[A dingo or dog of New South Wales. Plate. Description by J.Hunter.] «It is capable of barking, although not so readily asthe European dogs; is very ill-natured and vicious, and snarls,howls, and moans, like dogs in common. Whether this is theonly dog in New South Wales, and whether they have it in a wildstate, is not mentioned; but I should be inclined to believethey had no other; in which case it will constitute the wolf ofthat country; and that which is domesticated is only the wilddog tamed, without having yet produced a variety, as in someparts of America.»
1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New SouthWales,' p. 614 [Vocab.]:
«Jungo – – – Beasts, common name.
Tein-go – – – Din-go.
Wor-re-gal – – – Dog.»
1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' p. 62:
«The native dog also, which is a species of the wolf, wasproved to be fully equal in this respect [sport] to the fox;but as the pack was not sufficiently numerous to kill theseanimals at once, they always suffered so severely from theirbite that at last the members of the hunt were shy in allowingthe dogs to follow them.»
1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar,' p. 55:
«Tigko – – – a bitch.»
1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes `(1855), p. 153:
«I have heard that the dingo, warragal or native dog, does nothunt in packs like the wolf and jackal.»
1860. William Story, `Victorian Government Prize Essays,' p. 101:
«The English hart is so greatly superior, as an animal ofchase, to that cunning poultry thief the fox, that I trustMister Reynard will never be allowed to become an Australianimmigrant, and that when the last of the dingoes shall haveshared the fate of the last English wolf, Australian Nimrodswill resuscitate, at the antipodes of England, the sterling oldnational sport of hart hunting, conjointly with that of Africanboks, gazelles, and antelopes, and leave the fox to theirEnglish cousins, who cannot have Australian choice.»
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 103:
«In the neighbourhood of Brisbane and other large towns wherethey have packs, they run the dingoes as you do foxes at home.»
1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 113:
«The arms of the Wimmera should be rabbit and dingo, `rampant,'supporting a sun, `or, inflamed.'»
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 71:
«Dingoes, the Australian name for the wild dogs so destructiveto sheep. They were . . . neither more nor less than wolves,but more cowardly and not so ferocious, seldom going in largepacks. They hunted kangaroos when in numbers, or driven to itby hunger; but usually preferred smaller and more easilyobtained prey, as rats, bandicoots, and 'possums.»
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 38:
«On the large stations a man is kept whose sole work it is tolay out poison for the dingo. The black variety with whitebreast generally appears in Western Queensland along with thered.»
1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne':
«The dingo of northern Australia can be distinguished from hisbrother of the south by his somewhat smaller size andcourageous bearing. He always carries his tail curled over hisback, and is ever ready to attack any one or anything; whilstthe southern dingo carries his tail low, slinks along like afox, and is easily frightened. The pure dingo, which is nowexceedingly rare in a wild state, partly through the agency ofpoison, but still more from the admixture of foreign breeds, isunable to bark, and can only express its feelings in long-drawnweird howls.»
1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. l1, col. 4:
«Why is the first call of a dingo always apparently miles away,and the answer to it – – another quavering note slightly moreshrill – – so close at hand? Is it delusion or distance?»