black splashes on the back
and hips; under-parts white or a dirty white. Others are of a
yellowish-white all over the upper parts, with the belly and inner
sides of the thighs white. A brownish-black variety is common, with
a few white spots arranged longitudinally on the back--the latter
I found were young." Kinloch writes: "The prevailing colour is
brownish-grey, varying in shade on the back, where it is darkest,
so as to give the animal a mottled or brindled appearance."

SIZE.--Length, about 3 feet; height, 22 inches.

The musk-deer is a forest-loving animal, keeping much to one locality.
It bounds with amazing agility over the steepest ground, and is
wonderfully sure-footed over the most rocky hills. It ruts in winter,
produces one or two young, which are driven off in about six weeks'
time by the mother to shift for themselves. They begin to produce
at an early age--within a year. The musk bag is an abdominal or
praeputial gland which secretes about an ounce of musk, worth from
ten to fifteen rupees. It is most full in the rutting season; in the
summer, according to Leith Adams, it hardly contains any. The musk
does not seem to affect the flavour of the meat, which is considered
excellent.

CERVIDAE--THE DEER.

Of the horned ruminants these are the most interesting. In all parts
of the world, Old and New, save the great continental island of
Australia, one or other kind of stag is familiar to the people, and
is the object of the chase. The oldest writings contain allusions
to it, and it is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures.

"Like as the hart desireth the water brooks,"

sang David. It is bound up in history and romance, and the chase of
it in England is to this day a royal pastime.

However, to come back from the poetry of the thing to dry scientific
details, I must premise that the two main distinctions of the
Cervidae, as separating them from the Bovidae, are horns which are
not persistent, but annually shed, and the absence of a gall bladder,
which is present in nearly all the Bovidae. The deer also, with one
exception (the reindeer, _Rangifer tarandus_) have horns only in the
males.

Regarding the shedding of these horns, it is supposed that the
operation is connected with the sexual functions. It is a curious
fact that castration has a powerful effect on this operation; if done
early no horns appear; if later in life, the horns become persistent
and are not shed.

Captain James Forsyth