300 



ANATOMY OF MOSCHUS 



metacarpals, are of the more ancient type represented in Alecs, 

 Hyflropotes, etc. A. gall-bladder is present. The young, as 

 in so many Cervidae are spotted ; but the adult is of a greyish- 

 brown colour. 



Fig. 158. — Musk Deer. Moselius moschiferus. x J. {Yxom Nature. ) 



There is no doubt that Moselius is more nearly related to 

 the Cervidae than to any other Euminants. It is regarded 

 by Sir W. Flower as " an undeveloped deer — an animal which 

 in most points (absence of horns, smooth brain, retention of 

 gall-bladder, etc.) has ceased to progress with the rest of the 

 group, while in some few (musk gland, mobile feet) it has taken 

 a special line of advance of its own." 



The musk itself, which gives its name to the creature, is 

 found in a gland on the belly, about the size of a hen's egg. 

 The whole gland is cut out and sold in this condition. Such 

 quantities of musk deer have been and are killed for this purpose 

 that the rarity of the animal is increasing. In the seventeenth 



