Game Animals of India, etc. 



the rump, and about a couple of inches less at the 

 withers. On the upper part of the head and body and 

 outer surface of the limbs the prevailing colour is some 

 shade of rich dark brown, more or less mottled and 

 speckled with grey, and in immature individuals dis- 

 playing traces of spots, generally arranged in lines. 

 The speckled appearance of the coat is due to the 

 coloration of the individual hairs, which are white for 

 the basal three-quarters of their length, then ringed 

 with white, and terminating in a blackish tip. The 

 under surface of the body and the inner sides of the 

 limbs are whitish, and there may be a single or double 

 white spot on each side of the throat. In regard to 

 details of coloration there is, however, a considerable 

 individual variation, some skins being paler and others 

 more yellow than ordinary ; in addition to which there 

 may be splashes of black or golden red on the upper- 

 parts, while the under surface may be either golden 

 yellow or white. 



Being forest-dwelling mountain animals, musk-deer 

 are restricted in the Himalaya to the wooded ranges, 

 where they are usually found at elevations of about 

 8000 feet, or higher, during summer. So far as 

 present information goes, the western limit of the range 

 occurs somewhere about the neighbourhood of Gilgit ; 

 the species is unknown in the barren districts of Dras, 

 Zanskar, and Ladak, but farther west, probably in the 

 neighbourhood of Sikhim, extends northwards into the 

 forest districts of Eastern Tibet. It has also a wide 

 distribution in Central and Northern Asia. 



As musk-deer yield a product valuable to man, 

 which can be obtained from no other source, they are 

 objects of eager and incessant pursuit, which would in 

 all probability have already resulted in their extermina- 

 tion, were it not for the circumstance that they frequent 

 country where concealment is comparatively easy. As 

 it is, however, the numbers of this animal have been 

 seriously reduced in the more accessible parts of its 



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