File:Brehm's Life of animals - a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia (1896) (20225320528).jpg

Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim1896breh (find matches)
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Pechuel-Loesche, Edward, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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THE DOG FAMILY—DOG. 207 mountains of debris. These mounds serve as habi- tations for the Dogs that have run wild. The ani- mals are all of one breed, and are of the size of a Shepherd Dog, but have an ungainly shape and a repulsive expression of countenance. The tail is long, rather bushy, and usually pendent; and the color of their coarse, matted hair is a dingy, reddish brown, sometimes merging into gray or yellow. Other colors, more particularly black and light yel- low, are sometimes seen, but not often. These Dugs live on the elevations just described in a condition of complete independence. There they spend the greater part of the day in sleep, and prowl around at night. Each one of these Dogs has his own habitation, which is arranged with peculiar care, his home consisting of two holes, one of which faces east and the other west. If the situation of the mountain is such that the holes on both sides are exposed to the north wind, each of the animals digs for himself another excavation, into which he moves when the cold wind annoys him in his morning and evening re- treat. In the morning the Dogs can always be found in the holes that face toward the east un- til about eleven o'clock, for in these recesses thc\' await the first rays of the sun to warm them after the cold of the night. The sunshine, in- creasing in intensity, at last becomes too warm, and one Dog after an- other arouses himself, climbs over the summit and slinks into his hill- ing place on the other side. When the after- noon sun begins to an- noy them in this retreat the colony returns to the holes on the east side and stays there until sunset. Then lite begins in the mountains. Largo and small troops and some- times packs arc formed. Sounds of barking, howl- ing, or quarreling are heard, according to the mood the animals are in. A large carcass always causes them to collect in great numbers; a dead Ass or Mule is eaten up even to the largest bones by the hungry pack. If they are very hungry, they go to the carrion even in the day- time, especially if their most disagreeable rivals, the Vultures, should come down, and they fear •their competition. They are possessed of professional envy to a high degree, and enter into violent com- bats with all uninvited guests. Vultures are not easily driven away and of all carrion-eaters offer the most determined and courageous resistance, and therefore it is from the competition of these birds that the Dogs sustain the greatest loss. Carrion forms the chief part of their food under all circum- stances ; but these Dogs may sometimes be seen mounting guard before a Mouse-hole like Cats, or to attack a bird, like Jackals or Foxes. When carrion fails them, they undertake long journeys, enter cities and prowl through the streets. As they clear away vast quantities of filth they are tolerated though not welcome guests, and nowadays it is probably very seldom that a pious Moslem mentions them in his will, as is said to have happened not infrequently in former times. When resting in their proper abode these Dogs are rather cautious and timid, and especially shun people in European attire who may endeavor to approach them. If one of the Dogs is attacked a genuine uproar begins. A head appears at every hole and in a few minutes the tops of the mounds are covered with Dogs, which keep up an uninter- rupted yelping. I have hunted these Dogs several times, partly for the purposes of observation, partly with a view to procuring their flesh, which 1 used either as bait for wild Vultures or to feed my cap-
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DINGO.—The wild Ootr of Australia, known as tin- Dingo, is generally disliked by the present white inhabit- iuse of the damage it causes among the flocks in ti"- great Sheep ranges, The aborigines,however, frequently tamed it sufficiently to make it an important assistant to them in the chase. It is domestic Dog. has a shaggy coat ami a bushy tail, and makes its living by bunting the marsupials ami rodents of the southern continent. (Cants dingo.) tive Vultures and Hyaenas. During such hunting expeditions I saw how these animals keep and live together and I also observed the fact that they soon learned to know and fear me. In Khartum, for instance, it was impossible for me to shoot one of these masterless Dogs, as they would not permit me to approach them nearer than four hundred paces, and they were so wary that they baffled even' at- tempt to get within gunshot. Sometimes the masterless Dogs increase in such numbers as to become a plague. In order to get rid of these pests Mohammed Ali once freighted a ship with them and threw them overboard into the deep sea. Fortunately cases of hydrophobia are extremely rare among these animals, and instances of persons having been bitten by a mad Dog are nearly unknown.

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