298 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



Unlike other Deer, the Musk-Deer has a gall-bladder like most 

 animals. The Musk-Deer is purely a mountain animal, but it has a 

 wide range, being found from the Western Himalayas to Western 

 China. It frequents forest-covered places, and ranges very high up, 

 being indifferent to cold, from which its remarkable coat well protects 

 it. In its movements it is very active, and it is remarkable for its 

 agility and surefootedness, travelling in great bounds. The food of 

 the Musk-Deer consists of leaves, flowers, lichens, and grass ; it is 

 evidently, like the Goat, an animal that enjoys a change of diet. 



It is solitary in its habits, and never seen in flocks, at the most a 

 pair consorting together ; and it is also a very silent animal, except for 

 an alarm hiss, and the loud screams which it will utter when captured. 



Few animals are more relentlessly persecuted by man than this, 

 and the persecution has been a long-continued one, for musk used 

 formerly to be even more esteemed than it is at the present day > 

 being used freely in cookery and medicine as well as in perfumery. 

 The great value of musk in the last-mentioned art lies in the extra- 

 ordinary power of the scent, which, almost intolerably strong in the 

 crude article, gives a needed "body" and persistence to the various 

 delicate manufactured perfumes. It might naturally be supposed that 

 so highly flavoured an animal would be unpalatable — at any rate to 

 Europeans, but Mr. Lydekker states that even the buck's meat is free 

 from muskiness if the scent pouch is removed at once ; the doe, of 

 course, is not musky at all, and the venison is very good. 



The skin of the Musk-Deer does not seem to be commonly utilised, 

 but if properly cured it makes a most excellent bedroom mat, on 

 account of its warm nature. These Deer are secured either by shooting 

 or snaring, the latter poaching method being especially favoured by 

 natives. 



Although it is not a very common animal "in captivity, the Musk- 

 Deer :does well in our climate, and is sometimes on view in our 

 Zoological Gardens ; it also thrives in those few parks in which it has 

 been introduced. It would be a very desirable proceeding to acclimatise 

 this valuable and harmless animal, not only in some of our mountain 



