HKB
a third exists in Java; and a fourth in the Philippines. In Java, too, we find the beautiful little Muntjak; and another tiny variety in China, called the Chinese Muntjak.
Returning again to the Himalaya country, we encounter, in the plains south of this great chain, the Spotted Axis, so well-known from its beautiful markings, which resemble those of the fawn of our own fallow-deer. But it may be remarked that there are two or three species of spotted deer, and that they inhabit the plains of India--from the Himalayas southward to the Island of Ceylon. Ascending these great mountains, we encounter among their lower slopes another very singular species of cervine creature--the Musk Deer--which, though but little known, is one of the most interesting of its tribe; especially so, as it is from the secreting glands of this curious little animal that most of the celebrated perfume of commerce is obtained.
Crossing the Himalayas, and advancing northwards, we find upon the plains of Central Asia a species of deer, known among the Tartars as Siaga, and to our own naturalists as the Tail-less Roe. Several species entirely unknown to scientific men will yet be discovered, when the immense steppes of Asia come to be explored by observers capable of describing and classifying.
Like many another genus of animals, a complete monograph of the deer tribe would be of itself the labour of a life.