CERVID^E 315 



1 (ladder. The hemispheres of the brain are but slightly convoluted, 

 and the cotyledons of the placenta are arranged in a peculiar linear 

 manner. 1 



Although, owing to variations of colour presented by different 

 individuals in different localities and seasons, several nominal species 

 have been described, zoologists are now generally agreed that there 

 is but one, the Moschus moschifems of Linnaeus. In size it is rather 

 less than the European Eoe Deer, being about 20 inches high at the 

 shoulder. Its limbs, especially the hinder ones, are long. The feet 

 are remarkable for the great development of the lateral pair of hoofs, 

 and for the freedom of motion they all present, so that they appear 

 to have the power of grasping projecting rocky points, a power 

 which must be of great assistance to the animal in steadying it in 

 its agile bounds among the crags of its native haunts. The ears are 

 large, and the tail quite rudimentary. The hair covering the body 

 is long, coarse, and of a peculiarly brittle and pith-like character, 

 breaking with the application of an extremely slight force ; it is 

 generally of a grayish-brown colour, sometimes inclined to yellowish- 

 red, and often variegated with lighter patches. The Musk-Deer has 

 a wide distribution over the highlands of central and eastern Asia, 

 including the greater part of southern Siberia, and extends to 

 Kashmir on the south-west and Cochin-China on the south-east, 

 always, however, at considerable elevations, being rarely found in 

 summer below 7000 feet above the sea-level, and ranging as high as 

 the limits of the thickets of birch or pines, among which it mostly 

 conceals itself in the day-time. It is a hardy, solitary, and retiring 

 animal, chiefly nocturnal in its habits, and almost always found 

 alone, rarely in pairs, and never in herds. It is exceedingly active and 

 sure-footed, having few equals in traversing rocky and precipitous 

 ground; and it feeds on moss, grass, and leaves of the plants 

 which grow on the mountains among which it makes its home. 



Most of the animals of the group to which the Musk-Deer 

 belongs, in fact the large majority of mammals, have some portion 

 of the cutaneous surface peculiarly modified and provided with 

 glands secreting some odorous and oleaginous substance specially 

 characteristic of the species. This, correlated with the extraordin- 

 ary development of the olfactory organs, appears to offer the princi- 

 pal means by which animals in a state of nature become aware of 

 the presence of other individuals of their own species, or of those 

 inimical to them, even at very great distances, and hence it is of 

 extreme importance both to the well-being of the individual and to 

 the continuance of the race. The situation of this specially modified 

 portion of skin is extremely various, sometimes between the toes, 

 as in Sheep, sometimes on the face in front of the eyes, as in many 



1 For the auatomy of Moschus see Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 159 ; 

 and Garrod, ibid. 1877, p. 287. 



