Whilst we were at Swan River this time, a wish I had long entertained of procuring a pup of the wild breed of dogs* of the country, was gratified.  It was a bitch, and left in the hollow of a tree by her mother who had just escaped.  Knowing that they hunt kangaroos in packs, and have excellent noses, I was anxious to try if something useful might not be made out of a cross with the fox-hound; and with this view on my arrival in England, I gave her to my cousin, Mr. G. Lort Phillips; but she died in a fit soon after coming into his possession.  Whilst with me she had two litters of pups by a pointer, three each time, the first at two years, and the second after an interval of ten months.  At these times she was particularly savage, and would take the opportunity of paying off any old grudge she might have against those who had ill-used her—­for she never forgot an injury—­by stealing after them and snapping at their heels.  She was very much attached to her young; one day I took her on shore and she kept catching birds to bring to them, supplying them, as an over-fond mother will do, with a superfluity of good things.

(Footnote.  I am informed by Colonel Owen Phillips, 56th B.N.I., formerly Assistant-Resident at Macassar, that he saw four wild dogs brought to Sir Stamford Raffles at Java, which bore a very strong resemblance to the animals mentioned in the text.)

I was very much interested in this animal, and took a great deal of pains to tame her, though I never fully succeeded.  Her nose, as I have said, was excellent; and though quite mute she could hunt very well, as I found by repeated trials when out rabbit shooting.  She would never leave a hole, working at it with her feet and teeth until she got at the inmate.  These qualities confirmed me in my opinion that a cross with the fox-hound would produce a good result.  As an illustration of her keenness of smell, I may mention that one day when we were lying in the Tamar river, she winded some sheep on the bank, and was instantly overboard and after them, swimming so rapidly that she had reached the land, and, though herself only the size of a large dog-fox, had pulled down a fine ram before a party could get on shore to prevent her.  When they landed, instead of trying to make her escape, she slunk into the boat.  This freak of hers cost me five pounds.

PECULIARITIES OF THE WILD DOG.

In cold weather her coat was always best, and the brush on her tail most perfect.  She was of a light tan colour, with a little white on the tip of the tail, and a few black hairs sprinkled in the brush; there was a little black also about her face.  Her step was light and stealthy; and in her eye meekness and cunning were curiously blended.  Though very shy of man, when once taken up in the arms she lay as quiet as a cat; but with all dogs she was very quarrelsome, fighting savagely with a greyhound bitch I had on board, and several times nearly killing a