186 MAMMALIA. 



ing a long canine tooth on each side of the upper jaw, which in the 

 male issues from the mouth, and finally in having a slender pero- 

 nseus, which is not found even in the Camel. These animals are 

 remarkably light and elegant. 



M. moschiferus, L.5 Buff. Supp. VI, xxix. (The Musk.) This 

 is the most celebrated species, and the size of a Goat, has 

 scarcely any tail, and is completely covered with hairs so 

 coarse and brittle that they might be termed spines. What 

 particularly distinguishes it, however, is the pouch situated 

 before the prepuce of the male which produces that odorous 

 substance so well known by the name of musk. This species 

 appears to belong to that rugged and rocky region from which 

 descend most of the Asiatic rivers, and which is spread put 

 between Siberia, China and Thibet. Its habits are solitary and 

 nocturnal, its timidity extreme. It is in Thibet and Tunkin 

 that it yields the best musk; in the north, it is almost inodorous. 

 The other Musks have no musk-pouch, and inhabit the warm 

 parts of the eastern continent ;(1) they are the smallest and the 

 most elegant of all the Ruminantia.(2) 



All the rest of the Ruminantia, the males at least, have two 

 horns, that is to say, two prominences of the frontal bones 

 which are not found in any other family of animals. 

 . In some, these prominences are covered with an elastic 

 sheath composed as if with agglutinated hairs, which increases 

 by layers and during life ; the name of horn is applied to the 

 substance of this sheath, and the sheath itself is called the 

 come creuse. The prominence it envelopes grows with it, 

 and never falls. Such are the horns of Oxen, Sheep, Goats 

 and Antelopes. 



In others, the prominences are only covered with a hairy 

 skin, continuous with that of the head ; nor do the prominen- 

 ces fall, those of the Giraffe excepted. 



Finally, in the genus of the Stags, the prominences covered 

 for a time with a hairy skin, similar to that on the rest of the 



(1) The Moschus americanus established from Soba, is merely the )'oung or the 

 female of one of the Guiana Deer. The same may be said of the M. delicu/ulus of 

 Shaw, Schreb. 245, D. It is the fawn of an American Deer. 



(2) Moschus pygmceus, BufF. XII, xiii. Moschus memina, Schreb. CCXL, iii. 

 Moschus juvanicus, Buff. Supp. VI, xxx. 



