MUSK-DEKR. FAMILY CAMKLI1XK. 31 i 



other Musk-Deer, to which the general term of Chevrotains is 

 given, are inhabitants of Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, and Southern 

 India ; and are adapted to a forest rather than to a mountain 

 life. They are very small, peculiarly elegant in their appearance 

 and movements, timid and wild in their native haunts, but mild 

 and gentle in captivity, to which they soon become reconciled. 

 The Napu of Java and Sumatra is particularly interesting, as 

 having the smallest blood-corpuscles of any animal at present 

 known. (AwiM. PHYSIOL., 229). No true Musk-Deer is known 

 to inhabit America ; two species which have been described as 

 such, being in reality the young of the Deer of that country. 



278. We proceed lastly to the family CAMELID^E, which 

 includes, with the Camels and Dromedaries of the Old World, 

 the Llamas, which may be considered as representing them in the 

 New. The peculiarities which distinguish the animals of this 

 family from the ordinary Ruminants, have been already men- 

 tioned ( 253, 254); these peculiarities for the most part show an 

 approach towards the Pachydermata ; and this is indicated, also, 

 by the greater heaviness in the form and movements of the body, 

 which contrast strongly with the grace and elegance of the Rumi- 

 nantia in general. " There is something strange and imposing 

 in the aspect of the gaunt and angular camel, destitute, as it con- 

 fessedly is, of grace and animation. We are amazed at its height, 

 its uncouth proportions, its long thin neck, its meagre limbs, and 

 the huge hump on its back, which conveys the idea of distortion. 

 Quietly it stands in one fixed attitude, its long-lashed eyelid 

 drooping over the large dark eyes ; it moves and onward stalks 

 with slow and measured steps, as if exercise were painful. To 

 complete the picture, it is covered with shaggy hair, irregularly 

 disposed, here forming tangled masses, there almost wanting. 

 Its thick mobile upper lip is deeply divided ; its feet are large 

 and spreading, the toes being merely tipped with little hoofs.* ' 

 There are two species of this animal; the Bactrian,or two-humped; 

 and the Arabian^ or one-humped. Both are completely domesti- 

 cated. The former is employed chiefly in Central Asia ; the 



* Pictorial Museum, Vol., I., p. 115. 



