CHAPTER XVII. 



THE MOUSE DEER. 



THE TRAGULID/E OR HORNLESS DEER — DISPUTES OF NATURALISTS — THE KANCH1L — ITS APPEAR. 

 ANCE AND HABITS — ATTEMPTS TO INTRODUCE IT TO EUROPE. 



THE family Tragulid^e is a group of small, deer-like animals 

 with tusks in the upper-jaw, and having some structural affini- 

 ties with the camel. The musk deer, Moschus moschiferus, was 

 formerly classed in this family, but a minute examination of its structure 

 by the celebrated French naturalist M. Milne-Edwards has shown it to 

 be more closely allied to the true deer. The Chevrotains or Mouse-deer, 

 as the Tragulid^e are called, differ from the Musk-deer by having only 

 three divisions in the stomach, and by the absence of a gland to secrete 

 musk. They are usually divided into two genera : Tragulus com- 

 prising five species, which range over all India to the foot of the Hima- 

 layas and Ceylon, and through Assam, Malacca, and Cambodia to Suma- 

 tra, Borneo, and Java ; and HYOMOSCHUS, forming one species, found 

 in Western Africa. 



Naturalists, however, are by no means agreed respecting the classifi- 

 cation of the TragnlidcE, and many deny that the differences that exist 

 are such as to justify the creation of two genera, or even the number of 

 species assigned. As a matter of fact, all classification depends upon 

 anatomical peculiarities, rather than on anything which the ordinary 

 observer would detect. In a work intended for the general public, we 

 have no hesitation in neglecting the refined distinctions of the profes- 

 sional naturalists. Fancy, therefore, a delicate deer-like creature with a 

 slender, graceful head, no horns, beautiful bright eyes, and legs as thick as 

 a lead-pencil, with the tiniest hoofs, a short, little tail, and soft, smooth 

 hair, — and you have the Mouse-deer. 



The Kanchil, Tragulus pygmcetis or Javanicus (Plate XLII), is, in- 

 cluding the tail, about a foot and a half long, and stands about eight 



