“The Musk Deer,” according to Captain Kinloch, “is a solitary and retiring animal; it is nearly nocturnal in its habits, remaining concealed in some thick bush during the daytime, and only coming out to feed in the mornings and evenings. It frequents the highest parts of the forest, preferring the birch, rhododendron, and juniper, and is almost always found alone, rarely in pairs, and never in flocks. No animal seems more indifferent to cold, from which it is well protected by its thick coat of hollow hair, which forms as it were a sort of cushion, which acts as an insulator, and enables the Deer to lie even on snow without much loss of animal heat. It is amazingly active and sure-footed, bounding along without hesitation over the steepest and most dangerous ground. Its usual food seems to be leaves and flowers, but the natives say that it will kill and eat Snakes.” The value of the Musk perfume causes the animal to be persecuted beyond measure. From Chardin we learn that the hunters are obliged to cover the nose and mouth with linen when removing the scent-sac, to prevent pulmonary hæmorrhage. “I have,” says he, “gained accurate information respecting this circumstance, and as I have heard the same thing talked of by some Armenians who had been to Boutan, I think that it is true. The odour is so powerful in the East Indies that I could never support it, and when I trafficked for musk I always kept in the open air, with a handkerchief over my face, and at a distance from those who handled the sacs; and hence I know by experience that this musk is very apt to give headaches, and is altogether insupportable when quite recent. I add that no drug is so easily adulterated, or more apt to be so.” [Illustration: MUSK [DEER].] THE GIRAFFE.[28] Apart from its unique proportions and its size, the Giraffe presents peculiarities in its organisation which compel us to separate it from the Deer on the one hand, and the hollow-horned ruminants on the other. In both these groups the appendages on the head, whether developed as antlers or as horns, are distinct prolongations from the forehead bones themselves. In the Giraffe, however, the three bony appendages, one median and two lateral, all covered with skin, instead of being produced as outgrowths from any portion of the skull, are separate and independent conical bony “processes” which stand upon the skull, capping roughened conical prominences destined to support them. Neither are horns, like those of Sheep or Oxen, nor antlers like those of the Deer, ever found upon these processes, a tuft of hair alone surmounting the lateral pair.