MAMMALIA. 243 



Restating 160 days. In six weeks the young can shift for them- 

 selves, and the mother drives them off. They can procreate ere 

 they are a year old, and live ten or fifteen years. One is usually 

 produced at a birth, in cavities of the rocks. Gall-bladder con- 

 stant. 



The tail-gland of the Musk is very large, and covers the whole 

 tail nearly, and has a linear, longitudinal pore on each side, and 

 an abundant secretion. 



The preputial gland of the Musk is analogous to that of the 

 Civets and the Screw-tail (Paradoxurus)-, it is placed on the 

 prepuce, the penis opening in the midst of it : this organ is 

 clearly subservient to sexual purposes, and so probably are seve- 

 ral others, though the eye-pits have been variously referred to 

 the facilitation of breathing and of smelling. The supposed end 

 of the interdigital glands and pores, or feet-pits, viz. the lubrica- 

 tion of the feet and preservation of the hoofs in hot sandy de- 

 serts, is clearly erroneous, since the Thar has these organs of 

 enormous size in all the four extremities, though it be the tenant 

 of moist, cool mountain forests. It is probable that the secre- 

 tion from the foot-pores enables these animals to find one an- 

 other in those wildernesses of vast forest-trees and dense under- 

 growth which constitute their range. Hodgson. 



The Musk is said to derive its peculiar odoriferous secretion 

 from feeding on the Kastooree plant, a kind of ground-nut which 

 is strongly impregnated with the same pungent scent, and which 

 the animal digs up with its long tusk. Ogilby in Royle, Himal. 

 i. Ixxi. 



1. MOSCHUS SIBIRICUS. The KUBARGA. 



Ash brown, beneath paler. Throat black or ashy, with a de- 

 finite white streak on each side. 



Animal Moschiferum Kubarga dicta, /. G. Gmelin, Nov. Com. 

 Petrop. iv. 393. 



Moschus Sibiricus, Pallas, Spic. Zool. xiii. 29. t. 4, 5, 6; Grc-y, 

 Cat. Mamm. B. M. 172; List Osteol. Spec. 63; KnowsUy 

 Menag. 



Moschus moschiferus, Schreb. Saugth. 944. t. 242, 242 a; Shaw, 

 Lever. Mus. i. t. 3?; Wrangle's Siberia, 374. 



Moschus moschiferus var. Altaici, Sundevall. 



Moschus Altaicus, Eschsch. Jobst. Isis, 1830, 606 ; Per. Bull. 

 Sci. xxii. 46. 



Hab. Siberia ; Altai Mountains ; Lake Baikal ; Gmelin. Bor- 

 ders of Arctic Ocean ; Wrangle. Mongolia, Eschsch. 



Male and female. Siberia. From the Museum of the Royal 

 Academy of Petersburg. 



