THE MUSK-DEER 



{Moschus moschiferus) 



THE Musk-Deer has for many centuries been a familiar animal on 

 account of its valuable scented secretion, though little known in its 

 own person, which is indeed insignificant enough, for it is a small 

 creature, not so large as an ordinary Goat, and measuring less than 

 two feet at the shoulder. It is also one of the very few Deer which 

 never possess horns, these weapons being replaced by the long upper 

 canines in the males ; the female's canines are quite short, and of no 

 service as weapons. 



In build the Musk-Deer is also very different from other Deer, 

 having particularly long hind-legs ; its hoofs are particularly charac- 

 teristic, being very pointed, and with the small hinder pairs, or " false 

 hoofs," much better developed than in any other ruminant so much 

 so, in fact, that they are of use in helping the animal to get a grip on 

 rocky ground, being movable. The coat is very characteristic, being 

 composed of long and extraordinarily coarse hair, almost like small 

 quills ; it is extremely close and thick, and the hairs are very brittle. 



The colour varies a good deal, some specimens being much redder 

 than others, while pale and dark varieties occur, and some have white 

 on the under-parts. The young animals have white spots, like Deer 

 fawns generally. 



The Musk, which has given the animal its reputation and 

 commercial importance, is to be found in a pouch about the size 

 of a hen's egg, situated under the skin of the abdomen ; it is a dark- 

 coloured substance of a pasty consistency. This "musk-pod" is absent 

 in the female, which also differs from the male not only in not 

 possessing tusks, but in having the tail, which is very short in both 

 sexes, covered with hair in the ordinary way, while in the male it 

 is naked except at the tip. 



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