MUSK-DEER, an animal belonging to the genus Moschus, of the section Pecora, a division of the Arti,odactyle Ungulates (see Mammalia, vol. xv. p. 430), and allied to the Deer {Cervidx). In many respects it differs from the typical members of that group and stands by itself as an isolated zoological form, retaining characters belonging to the older and more generalized types of ruminants before they were distinctly separated into the horned and the antlered sections now dominant upon the earth. One of these characters is that both sexes are entirely devoid of any sort of frontal appendage. In this, however, it agrees with one genus of true deer (JHydropotes') ∙, and, as in that animal, the upper canine teeth of the males are remarkably developed, long, slender, sharp-pointed, and gently curved, projecting downwards out of the mouth with the ends turned somewhat backwards. Among the anatomical peculiarities in which it differs from all true deer is the presence of a gall-bladder....
Although, owing to variations of colour presented by different individuals in different localities and seasons, several nominal species have been described, zoologists are now generally agreed that there is but one, the Moschus moschiferus of Linnaeus. In size it is rather less than the European roe-deer, being about 20 inches high at the shoulder. Its limbs, especially the hinder ones, are long. The feet are remarkable for the great development of the lateral pair of hoofs, and for the freedom of motion they all present, so that they appear to have the power of grasping projecting rocky points,—a power which must be of great assistance to the animal in steadying it in its agile bounds among the crags of its native haunts. The ears are large, and the tail quite rudimentary. The hair covering the body is long, coarse, and of a peculiarly brittle and pith-like character, breaking with the application of an extremely slight force; it is generally of a greyish-brown colour, sometimes inclined to yellowish red, and often variegated with lighter patches. The Musk-deer has a wide distribution over the highlands of central and eastern Asia, including the greater part of southern Siberia, and extends to Kashmir on the south-west and Cochin-China on the southeast, always, however, at great elevations,—being rarely found in summer below 8000 feet above the sea-level, and ranging as high as the limits of the thickets of birch, rhododendron, and juniper, among which it mostly conceals itself in the day-time. It is a hardy, solitary, and retiring animal, chiefly nocturnal in its habits, and almost always found alone, rarely in pairs and never in herds. It is exceedingly active and surefooted, having perhaps no equal in traversing rocks and precipitous ground; and it feeds on moss, grass, and leaves of the plants which grow on the mountains among which it makes its home.
Most of the animals of the group to which the Musk-deer belongs, in fact the large majority of mammals, have some portion of the cutaneous surface peculiarly modified and provided with glands secreting some odorous and oleaginous substance specially characteristic of the species. This, correlated with the extraordinary development of the olfactory organs, appears to offer the principal means by which animals in a state of nature become aware of the presence of other individuals of their own species, or of those inimical to them, even at very great distances, and hence it is of extreme importance both to the wellbeing of the individual and to the continuance of the race. The situation of this specially modified portion of skin is extremely various, sometimes between the toes, as⅛n sheep, sometimes on the face in front of the eyes, as in many deer and antelopes. Sometimes it is in the form of a simple depression or shallow recess, often very deeply involuted, and in its most complete state of development it forms a distinct pouch or sac with a narrow tubular orifice. In this sac a considerable quantity of the secretion can accumulate until discharged by the action of a compressor muscle which surrounds it. This is the form taken by the special gland of the Musk-deer, which has made the animal so well known, and which has proved the cause of an unremitting persecution to its possessor. It is found in the male only, and is a sac about the size of a small orange, situated beneath the skin of the abdomen, the orifice being immediately in front of the preputial aperture. The secretion with which the sac is filled is of dark-brown or chocolate colour, and when fresh described as being of the consistence of “moist gingerbread,” but becoming dry and granular after keeping. It has a peculiar and very powerful scent, which when properly diluted and treated forms the basis of many of our most admired perfumes. When the animal is killed the whole gland or “pod” is cut out and dried, and in this form reaches the market of the Western world, chiefly through China.
For further details on the anatomy and zoology of Moschus see Pallas, Spicilegia Zoologica, xiii. (1779); A. Milne-Edwards, “Recherches Anatomiques, Zoologiques, et Palaeontologiques sur la Famille des Chevrotains,” in Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 5th ser., zool., ii. (1865); Brandt and Ratzeburg, Medizinische Zoologie, i. pp. 41-51 (1839); W. H. Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1875, pp. 159-190; A. H. Garrod, ibid., 1877, pp. 287-292.
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