368 HOOFED ANIMALS 



hair, varying in colour from a rich dark brown to a mixture 

 of brown and whitish yellow. 



Though it is a watchful and timid animal, the natives of 

 these wild regions contrive to capture the Musk Deer in a 

 manner at once easy and profitable. On the ridges which 

 separate the valleys frequented by the animals they erect 

 fences, with gaps at intervals, in which traps are concealed 

 in the ground. Rather than jump over the obstruction the 

 animals elect to pass through the gaps, in the course of 

 which they tread upon a bough that releases a noose to 

 entangle the feet. At intervals the trappers collect the 

 snared animals and reset the traps. 



'No animal/ says Captain Kinloch, ' seems more in- 

 different to cold, from which it is protected by its thick 

 coat of hollow hair, which forms as it were a sort of 

 cushion, which acts as an insulator, and enables the Deer 

 to lie even on snow without much loss of animal heat. It 

 is amazingly active and surefooted, bounding along without 

 hesitation over the steepest and most dangerous ground. 

 Its usual food seems to be leaves, but the natives say that 

 it will eat snakes.' 



