CERVIDE. | 495 
The musk-deer is a forest-loving animal, keeping much to one 
locality. It bounds with amazing agility over the steepest ground, and 
is wonderfully sure-footed over the most rocky hills. It ruts in winter, 
produces one or two young, which are driven off in about six weeks’ 
time by the mother to shift for themselves. They begin to produce at an 
early age—within a year. The musk bag is an abdominal or preeputial 
gland which secretes about an ounce of musk, worth from ten to fifteen 
rupees. It is most full in the rutting season ; in the summer, according 
to Leith Adams, it hardly contains any. The musk does not seem to 
affect the flavour of the meat, which is considered excellent. 
CERVIDA:—THE DEER. 
Of the horned ruminants these are the most interesting. In all parts 
of the world, Old and New, save the great continental island of Aus- 
tralia, one or other kind of stag is familiar to the people, and is the 
object of the chase. The oldest writings contain allusions to it, and it 
is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures. 
‘* Like as the hart desireth the water brooks,” 
sang David. It is bound up in history and romance, and the chase of 
it in England is to this day a royal pastime. 
However, to come back from the poetry of the thing to dry scientific 
details, I must premise that the two main distinctions of the Cervide, 
as separating them from the Bovidz, are horns which are not persistent, 
but annually shed, and the absence of a gall bladder, which is present in 
nearly all the Bovidz. ‘The deer also, with one exception (the rein- 
deer, Rangifer tarandus) have horns only in the males. 
Regarding the shedding of these horns, it is supposed that the opera- 
tion is connected with the sexual functions. It is a curious fact that 
castration has a powerful effect on this operation ; if done early no 
horns appear ; if later in life, the horns become persistent and are not 
shed. 
Captain James Forsyth (in his ‘ Highlands of Central India’), was of 
opinion that the Sambar does not shed its horns annually, and states 
that this’ also is the opinion of native shikaris in Central India. This, 
however, requires further investigation. I certainly never heard of such 
a theory amongst them, nor noticed the departure from the normal 
state. 
There have been several classifications of the Cervide, but I think 
the most complete and desirable one is that of Sir Victor Brooke (see 
*P. Z. S.’ 1878, p, 883), which I shall endeavour to give in a condensed 
