Chevrotain

Chevrotain

Description

Small, deerlike animals of the genera Hyemoshcus and Tragulus native to the tropical forests of central Africa India and southeast Asia. The soft, supple skin of the chevrotain were used for chemises in England in the middle ages. Chevrotain is sometimes inaccurately called chevrette (Roberts and Etherington 1982).

Synonyms and Related Terms

mouse deer; Hirschferkel (Deut.); dwerghert (genus Tragilus) (Ned.); dwergmuskusdieren (Ned.); mushjortar (Sven.)

Resources and Citations

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• Wikipediat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrotain (Accessed Feb. 10, 2006)

• Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998