THE INDIAN MOUSE-DEER 



(Tragulus meminnd) 



THIS insignificant-looking little animal is one of the small family of 

 Chevrotains (Tragulida), as they are often called in books, which 

 represent a very primitive type of ruminant, and give us some idea 

 of what the ancestors of Deer and Antelopes were like before they 

 developed horns. 



Even the typical ruminant stomach is not fully developed in the 

 Mouse-Deer, although it chews the cud. This organ should consist 

 of four compartments the paunch, honeycomb bag, manyplies (a chamber 

 with longitudinally pleated walls, and the rumen or true stomach but 

 in the present animal the manyplies is not developed. 



The slender limbs also show a primitive feature unknown in the 

 higher ruminants ; the small back hoofs, which represent the second 

 and fourth toes, are really the terminations of complete toes, the bones 

 of which are hidden under the skin, whereas in other ruminants this 

 is never the case, only the lower ends of these toes remaining, even 

 when they are present at all. 



The teeth of the Mouse-Deer also show a primitive feature in the 

 front grinders being narrow-topped and pointed, not broad and suited 

 for crushing, as all the grinders of ruminants usually are. The long 

 tusk-like upper canines of the male, though much less developed, of 

 course recall those of the Musk-Deer, and there has been much con- 

 fusion between the two groups, the Chevrotains having long been 

 regarded as allies of that animal, although they have no special rela- 

 tionship to it any more than to other Deer, except in so far that it is 

 also a primitive type, though not nearly so much so as the Mouse- 

 Deer are. 



As in the Musk-Deer, the canines of the female Mouse-Deer are 

 short ; indeed, in none of the ruminants with long tusks in the males 



101 



