he _Moschus_ are found in the Mountains of Tibet, and
_M. Chrysogaster_ which Mr. Hodgson calls "the loveliest," and which
chiefly supplies the highly-prized pod called _Kaghazi_, or
"Thin-as-paper," is almost exclusively confined to the Chinese frontier.
Like the Yak, the _Moschus_ is mentioned by Cosmas (circa A.D. 545), and
_musk_ appears in a Greek prescription by Aetius of Amida, a physician
practising at Constantinople about the same date.

(_Martini_, p. 39; _Tav., Des Indes_, Bk. II. ch. xxiv.; _J. A. S. B._ XI.
285; _Davies's Rep._ App. p. ccxxxvii.; _Dr. Flueckiger in Schweiz.
Wochenschr. fuer Pharmacie_, 1867; _Heyd, Commerce du Levant_, II.
636-640.)

NOTE 5.--The China pheasant answering best to the indications in the text,
appears to be _Reeves's Pheasant_. Mr. Gould has identified this bird with
Marco's in his magnificent _Birds of Asia_, and has been kind enough to
show me a specimen which, with the body, measured 6 feet 8 inches. The
tail feathers alone, however, are said to reach to 6 and 7 feet, so that
Marco's ten palms was scarcely an exaggeration. These tail-feathers are
often seen on the Chinese stage in the cap of the hero of the drama, and
also decorate the hats of certain civil functionaries.

[Illustration: Reeves's Pheasant]

_Size_ is the point in which the bird fails to meet Marco's description.
In that respect the latter would rather apply to the _Crossoptilon
auritum_, which is nearly as big as a turkey, or to the glorious _Munal
(Lopophorus impeyanus)_, but then that has no length of tail. The latter
seems to be the bird described by Aelian: "Magnificent cocks which have
the crest variegated and ornate like a crown of flowers, and the tail
feathers not curved like a cock's, but broad and carried in a train like a
peacock's; the feathers are partly golden, and partly azure or
emerald-coloured." (_Wood's Birds_, 610, from which I have copied the
illustration; _Williams, M. K._ I. 261; _Ael. De Nat. An._ XVI. 2.) A
species of _Crossoptilon_ has recently been found by Captain Prjevalsky in
Alashan, the Egrigaia (as I believe) of next chapter, and one also by Abbe
Armand David at the Koko Nor.

[See on the Phasianidae family in Central and Western Asia, _David et
Oustalet, Oiseaux de la Chine_, 401-421; the _Phasianus Reevesii_ or
_veneratus_ is called by the Chinese of Tung-lin, near Peking, _Djeu-ky_
(hen-arrow); the _Crossoptilon auritum_ is named _Ma-ky_.--H. C.]

CHAPTER LVII