omesticated dogs. The latter contention cannot for a moment be
sustained; and there are also strong arguments against the indigenous
origin of the dingo. That the animal now occurs in a wild state is no
argument whatever as to its being indigenous, seeing that a domesticated
breed introduced by man into a new country abounding in game would
almost certainly revert to the wild state. The apparent absence of human
remains in the beds yielding dingo teeth and bones (which are almost
certainly not older than the Pleistocene) is of only negative value, and
liable to be upset by new discoveries. Then, again (as has been pointed
out by R. I. Pocock in the first part of the _Kennel Encyclopaedia_,
1907), the absence of any really wild species of the typical group of
the genus _Canis_ between Burma and Siam on the one hand and Australia
on the other is a very strong argument against the dingo being
indigenous, seeing that, whether brought by man or having travelled
thither of its own accord, the dingo must have reached its present
habitat by way of the Austro-Malay archipelago. If it had followed that
route in the course of nature, it is inconceivable that it would not
still be found on some portions of the route. On the supposition that
the dingo was introduced by man, we have now fairly decisive evidence
that the native Australian, in place of being (as formerly supposed) a
member of the negro stock, is a low type of Caucasian allied to the
Veddahs of Ceylon and the Toalas of Celebes. Consequently the Australian
natives must be presumed to have reached the island-continent by way of
Malaya; and if this be admitted, nothing is more likely than that they
should have been accompanied by pariah dogs of the Indian type.
Confirmation of this is afforded by the occurrence in the mountains of
Java of a pariah-like dog which has reverted to an almost completely
wild condition; and likewise by the fact that the old voyagers met with
dogs more or less similar to the dingo in New Guinea, New Zealand and
the Solomon and certain other of the smaller Pacific islands. On the
whole, then, the most probable explanation of the case is that the dingo
is an introduced species closely allied to the Indian pariah dog.
Whether the latter represents a truly wild type now extinct, cannot be
determined. If so, all pariahs should be classed with the Australian
warrigal under the name of _Canis dingo_. If, on the other hand,
pariahs, and consequently the di