INDIAN SHOOTING 287 



the male has two delicate curved tushes, growing down from the 

 upper jaw, which are often over three inches in length outside 

 the gums ; these tushes being the only distinguishing mark 

 between the sexes, it is very hard to tell them apart at a dis- 

 tance. 



The hair of the musk deer seems always loose, and comes 

 out readily. A musk deer just grazed by a bullet (by no means 

 an uncommon occurrence with so small a beast) seems to vanish 

 in a cloud of hair. The male has an abdominal gland contain- 

 ing more or less musk according to the season, it being fullest 

 during the rutting season in the winter ; this pod is valuable 

 (a good one is worth Rs. 5 in the jungle), and leads to the musk 

 deer being so mercilessly snared and hunted by natives that 

 in many districts they are almost extinct. Pine martens, wild 

 dogs, leopards, eagles, all seem to prey upon the unhappy musk 

 deer, and if it were not that they breed far more rapidly than 

 other deer (according to Hodgson being able to procreate before 

 they are a year old), they would have no chance of existence at 

 all. 



When a musk deer has been killed the pod should be cut 

 off in the presenpe of the sportsman, and hung up in his tent to 

 dry ; if the shikari is allowed to meddle with it, he will pro- 

 bably extract the musk, and fill up the pod with rubbish. 

 Another very common trick is for the shikari to present his 

 master with the buck's scrotum, and keep the pod for himself. 



Musk deer are generally found alone or in pairs, and as they 

 keep a great deal to their particular bit of ground, if one has 

 been seen and not fired at the sportsman may nearly always 

 rely upon finding it again near the same place. When startled 

 this deer gives a low hiss, and as it seldom runs far without 

 stopping to gaze, it generally affords an easy shot. Musk deer 

 are occasionally a nuisance on barasingh ground, and the writer 

 once lost a shot by putting up one of them just as he was get- 

 ting up to a stag which was calling in the forest. 



Measurements. Sterndale gives length about 36 ins., 

 height about 22 ins. Major Ward, height about 22 ins., 



