62 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



The flesh is esteemed, notwithstanding its strong flavour 

 of musk ; but the pursuit of the animal is principally for 

 the scented substance generated in the musk-bag, situate 

 on the abdomen before the prepuce of the male, and two or 

 three inches in diameter. The hunting period is chiefly in 

 the rutting season, because at this time the secretion is 

 most abundant, and of the highest quality. When the 

 animal is slain, the bag is cut away and made up into a 

 kind of purse ; but from the prodigious quantity sold, it is 

 evident that great falsification of the substance must take 

 place ; and indeed it is asserted, that the blood and liver 

 chopped small, and even lead, are mixed with the true musk. 

 Tavernier relates that he bought at one time thirteen hun- 

 dred and seventy-three bags. 



The time of gestation, and other circumstances of the 

 progeniture of these animals, is not as yet perfectly known. 

 They are said to feed principally on roots, for which they 

 dig and cut with great facility with the edges of their ca- 

 nines ; and it is probable that the tufts of hairs at the corner 

 of the mouth, are to guard the under jaw from injury during 

 this operation. 



In comparing the descriptions and accounts of friends 

 who have observed them in their native regions, and in 

 India, it would appear that there are two species, differing 

 in stature and in colour. The larger are said to be brown, 

 with longer and more pointed ears, and the canines about 

 three inches long; the smaller, of a slate colour, with 

 broader ears, and some black on the throat. It is probable, 

 however, that these are only varieties of climate or breed, 

 and, perhaps, of sex or age. 



The Pigmy Musk (Moschus Pygmeus, Lin.), admitted in 

 the catalogues upon the faith of the Plate 43 in Seba, is 

 considered very properly by M. F. Cuvier, as a very doubt- 

 ful species. He justly observes, that the specimen described 

 by Buffon is only a young animal, a fawn. Our own re- 



