The Kastura, or Musk-Deer 



sometimes giving vent to loud hisses as they stand 

 gazing on an intruder into their lonely and silent 

 domains. 



For the greater part of the year musk-deer are 

 solitary, but in January the buck seeks the company of 

 a single doe, with which it remains during the pairing- 

 season. In June the fawns make their appearance, and 

 although one is the usual number at a birth, there are 

 occasionally twins. In this respect musk-deer are 

 unlike Chinese water-deer, which are also devoid of 

 antlers and provided with long upper tusks in the 

 males ; the number of the young produced by the 

 doe of the latter being as many as half-a-dozen. 

 Fawns arrive at maturity rapidly, and are capable of 

 reproducing their kind within their first year. 



Sportsmen are in the habit of estimating the fineness 

 of the musk-deer they shoot by the length of their 

 tusks. In the largest specimen on record the tusk 

 projects 3^ inches beyond the jaw-bone ; while two 

 examples are known in which the length is 3 inches. 

 The only apparent difference between the sexes when 

 seen in the field is the presence of the long upper tusks 

 in the males, and to recognise the absence or presence 

 of these weapons in a momentary glance requires some 

 degree of practice. With these weapons the bucks 

 engage in combats with one another during the pairing- 

 season, specimens being sometimes killed in which the 

 hair has been ripped off in long lines. The brittleness 

 and stiffness of the hair renders the skin ot little value, 

 although from its peculiar nature the cold- resisting 

 power of the fur must be great. 



In musk-deer shooting the usual plan is to walk up 

 to the game, when either a small-bore rifle or a shot- 

 gun may be used. Less sportsmanlike is the method 

 of driving ; while the plan followed by the natives of 

 Garhwal of catching them by means of long net-fences, 

 provided at intervals with gaps in which are set running 

 nooses, is to be deprecated from all points of view. 



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