166 iMAMMALIA. 



male issues from the mouth, and finally in having in their skeleton a 

 slender peronaeus, which is not found even in the Camel. These are 

 animals Avhich are quite delightful by their lightness and elegance. 



M. MoscJiiferns (a), L. : Buff. Supp. VI. xxix. (The Musk Ox). 

 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 distin- 

 guishes 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 out between Siberia, China, and Thibet. Its habits are so- 

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

 Tunkin that it yields the best musk ; in the north it is almost in- 

 odorous. 



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

 of the old continent;* they are the smallest and the most elegant of 

 all the Ruminantia."!" 



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 com- 

 posed as if with agglutinated hairs, which increases by layers and during 

 life ; the name of horii is applied to the substance of this sheath, and the 

 sheath itself is called the corn creuse, or hollow horn. The prominence 

 it envelopes grows with it, and never falls. Such are the horns of Oxen, 

 Sheep, Goats, and Jntelopes. 



In others, the prominences are only covered with a hairy skin, conti- 

 nuous with that of the head; nor do the prominences 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 head, have at their 

 base a ring of bony tubercles, which, as they enlarge, compress and obli- 

 terate the vessels of that skin. It becomes dry and is thrown off; the 



* The moschus americanus established from Seba, is merely the young or the 

 female of one of tlie Guiana Deer. The same may be said of the M. delicatulus of 

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



t Moschus pygmoeus, Buff. XII. xiii. — Moschus memina, Schreb. CCLX. iii. — 

 Moschus juvanicus, Buff. Supp. VI. xxx. 



t^° (a) This is the Musk Ox, from which the musk of commerce is taken, and 

 the bag or pouch which contains it is peculiar to the male. The situation of this 

 pouch has been already described in the above account; with respect to its structure 

 it consists of several membranes laid upon each other, and covered by skin and hairs. 

 Internally a number of little cells are found, into which the musk is secreted. It is 

 employed but on the continent at present, more than in these countries, as a power- 

 ful anti-spasmodic; it is needless to add, that its chief employment is in perfumery. 

 — Eng. Ed. 



