Photo by Kerry & Co.] [Sydney.
DINGOES.
The destruction done to the flocks of the settlers by the dingoes caused the latter to combine and almost to destroy these wild dogs.
The Indian Wild Dogs.
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's stories of the "Dhole," the red dogs of the Indian jungle, have made the world familiar with these ferocious and wonderfully bold wild dogs. There is very little doubt that they were found in historic times in Asia Minor. Possibly the surviving stories of the "Gabriel hounds" and other ghostly packs driving deer alone in the German and Russian forests, tales which remain even in remote parts of England, are a survival of the days when the wild dogs lived in Europe. At present there is one species of long-haired wild dog in West Central Siberia. These dogs killed nearly all the deer in the large forests near Omsk some years ago. Across the Himalaya there are several species, one of them as far east as Burma; but the most famous are the Red Dogs of the Deccan. They frequent both the jungles and the hills; but their favourite haunt is the uplands of the Indian Ghats. They are larger than a jackal, much stronger, and hunt in packs. They have only ten teeth on each side, instead of eleven, as in the other dogs and foxes. There is no doubt that these fierce hunting-dogs actually take prey from the tiger's jaws, and probably attack the tiger itself. They will beset a tiger at any time, and the latter seems to have learnt from them an instinctive fear of dogs. Not so the leopard, which, being able to climb, has nothing to fear even from the "dhole." A coffee-planter, inspecting his grounds, heard a curious noise in the forest bordering his estate. On going round the corner of a thick bush, he almost trod on the tail of a tiger standing with his back towards him. He silently retreated, but as he did so he saw that there was a pack of wild dogs a few paces in front of the tiger, yelping at him, and making the peculiar noise which had previously attracted his attention. Having procured a rifle, he returned with some of his men to the spot. The tiger was gone, but they disturbed a large pack of wild dogs feeding on the body of a stag. This, on examination, proved to have been killed by the tiger, for there were the marks of the teeth in its neck. The dogs had clearly driven the tiger from his prey and appropriated it. The dread of the tiger for these wild dogs was discovered by the sportsmen of the Nilgiri Hills, and put to a good use. They used to collect scratch packs and hunt up tigers in the woods. The tiger, thinking they were the dreaded wild pack, would either leave altogether or scramble into a tree. As tigers never do this ordinarily, it shows how wild dogs get on their nerves.
Several South American wild dogs and foxes are included in the series with the wolves and jackals. Among these are Azara's Dog and the Raccoon-dog. These are commonly called foxes, though they have wolf-like skulls.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
CAPE HUNTING-DOG.
This animal hunts in packs. It is very active and most destructive to large game of many kinds.