Kansu Musk 315 



of 100 or 150 yards are gaps. The musk-deer, crossing the ridge from one 

 valley to another, come across this fence, and to save themselves the trouble 

 of jumping over it, walk alongside until, seeing a little gap, they try to go 

 through it. But in each gap a noose of strong string is placed on the 

 ground, and tied to a stout sapling, bent downwards. The noose is so 

 arranged that when the deer tread inside it, the sapling is loosed and flies 

 back, leaving the noose tied tightly round the animal's leg. The people 

 visit these fences every two or three days, and secure the deer thus caught, 

 and repair the fences and nooses, which are often carried away or destroyed 

 by larger game." 



The Hindustani name of the musk-deer is kastura. In English parks 

 these deer flourish well, and there are many at Woburn Abbey, and also at 

 Leonard's Lee, Sussex. They show but little timidity, and allow them- 

 selves to be approached closely before starting off with the characteristic 

 bounds. 



2. The Kansu Musk — Moschus sifanicus 



Moschus sifanicus, Biichner, Melanges biol. Ac. St. Petersbourg, vol. xiii. 

 p. 162 ( 1 89 1 , separate copies dated 1890). 



Characters. — Size and general coloration similar to the last, but the ears 

 much longer, and, instead of being similar externally to the back, differently 

 coloured. Externally they are more or less completely deep black, or black 

 at the base with a broad yellowish tip, the margin of the upper half having 

 a blackish or brownish band ; internally the margin is covered with 

 yellowish hair showing a more or less decided rufous tinge. The skull is 

 more massive, and longer in its anterior half, the nasal bones being 

 narrower, more elongated, and articulating with only a small portion of the 

 frontals. 



There is no example of this form in the British Museum. 

 Distribution. — Southern Kansu, China, where the Himalayan species 

 also occurs. 



