Game Animals of India, etc. 



The musk-deer inhabiting Kansu has already been 

 separated as a distinct, species (Af. sifanicus)^ and 

 possibly, when large sets of specimens are available for 

 comparison, the Himalayan musk-deer may be divisible 

 into local races. A skull in the British Museum 

 indicates that the range of musk-deer extends as far 

 east as Amurland. 



THE MEMINNA CHEVROTAIN 



(^Tragulus meminna) 



Native Names. — Pisura^ Pisora, and Pisai, Hindu- 

 stani AND Mahrathi ; Jitrai-haran^ Bengali ; 

 Gandwa^ Uria ; Tar^ Ho-kol ; Kuru-pandi^ 

 Telegu ; Kuram-pani^ Tamil ; Kur-pandi^ Cana- 

 RESE ; Meminna and Walmaha^ Cingalese. 



(Plate vii, fig. 6) 



Among the errors of popular natural history none 

 is more persistent or difficult to eradicate than the 

 belief that the little animals known as mouse-deer, or 

 chevrotains, are members of the deer tribe, or Cervid^e ; 

 for they are really very like diminutive hornless deer, 

 such as the Chinese water-deer and the musk-deer. 

 Superficial resemblances are, however, not to be trusted ; 

 and when the anatomy of the chevrotains is examined, 

 there are found important features by which they are 

 distinguished from typical ruminants, such as deer. 



It is true they have no upper front teeth, and that 

 they ruminate, or " chew the cud," and also that their 

 stomachs are divided into compartments ; but the 

 compartments are three instead of four in number, and 

 the fibula or smaller bone of the second segment of 

 the hind-limb is complete and free from the tibia or 

 larger bone, instead of incomplete and more or less 

 united with the latter. All the bones of the lateral 



272 



