244 WILD LIFE I\ CHINA. 



fij- up and take the animal by the leg as soon as he breaks a 

 string stretched across his path. The musk-deer stands less 

 than two feet high at the shoulder, and is devoid of horns (a 

 peculiarity amongst deer which it shares with the water- 

 deer of the Yangtze, Hydropofes inermis) the male bearing 

 instead a pair of sharp tusks, often as much as three inches 

 in length — a second peculiarity which it shares with 

 the Hydropofes. Another external peculiarity in the male is 

 the musk-sac, a gland in the skin of the abdomen, which 

 when dried yields commercial musk, a valuable medicine 

 alike to Tibetans and Chinese, selling for almost its weight 

 in silver in the cities. It is said that the musk deer knows 

 for what it is persecuted, and that when brought to bay, it 

 will turn its head and rip open its own musk-sac with its 

 long teeth. The musk deer extends down into Szechwan 

 also, but keeps altogether to higher altitudes than CaprioJtis 

 Bedfordi — not less than 8000 feet even in winter. The third 

 species of deer met with was David's deer, Chinese ma-lo or 

 "horse deer" of the Tibet border and Manchuria. The official 

 title is CtTviis Davidianiis, and he is by far the handsomest 

 of the Chinese deer. David's deer inhabits the high moutains 

 all the way up the Tibet border, ranging between 10,000 and 

 14,000 feet or even less. He stands quite four feet high at 

 the shoulder, and has an unusualh- long tail; the hair 

 soft and thick, uniformly dark above; and a technical 

 peculiarity distinguishes the horns of this species from 

 all other Asiatic representatives. The horns are much 

 prized for medicine by the Chinese, not indeed in the districts 

 where the animal is known (it is the old story of the prophet 

 in his own country) but in places like Canton were they have 

 never seen such an uncouth object as a deer's antler before: 

 so that its efficacy presumably lies in its novelty, and in the 

 ignorance which it consequently puddles for the moment. 

 We met half a dozen mule loads of these patent medicines 

 coming down from Sining, where the ma-lo is abundant. The 

 animal is by no means easy to stalk, for he is extremely 

 vigilant, and runs at a tremendous pace. We frequently 

 saw them in batches of three or even four together, but failed 

 to secure a specimen. This was in the Fen-tsi country south 

 of the Tow river; there were none around Tai-pei-san — one 

 has to go much further west. The nia-lo is a favourite in 

 captivity, and the native princes are fond of keeping them, 

 though the>' never become very tame. The Prince of Choni 

 however had one which would eat out of my hand and even 

 let me pat its neck (under protest) and the King of Kia-la. 

 who resides at Tatsienlu, had three of them, though these 

 were rather fierce animals, and were kept tied up. There 

 are also several in the Imperial Hunting Park, Peking. 



