MALE ORGANS OF REPTILES. 



581 



389 



stellate pigment-cells : in the Chameleon they give a black colour 

 to the gland. 



The short and outwardly extended legs of Lizards serve for 

 progression, not for support, and the animal rests with its belly 

 on the ground, as in Serpents : 

 hence the necessity not only for 

 the internal position of the testes, 

 but for the mechanism by which 

 the intromittent organs can be 

 inverted, and safely lodged out 

 of sight, in the base of the tail, 

 when not in use. 



In the Turtle (Chelone mi- 

 das) each testis is an elongate, 

 cylindrical, slightly bent body, 

 decreasing in size at the end next 

 the cloaca : the efferent tubes 

 leave it near the fore or upper 

 part of its concavity, and soon 

 join the vas defer ens, which 

 forms a large and compact body 

 by numerous convolutions, situ- 

 ated between the testis and 

 kidney. Each vas defer ens ter- 

 minates, with the ureter, in a 

 papilla, the spermatic orifice 

 being nearer the bladder. The penis is short, and is indicated, 

 in the unexcited state, chiefly by the urethra! groove ; only the 

 glans and the pointed end of the fibrocartilaginous body imme- 

 diately above it project from the cloacal surface, and these are 

 partly enclosed by a thick duplicature of the cloacal membrane, 

 representing a preputium : in the erection of the organ this fold 

 is everted and obliterated. 



In the Emys europaa the testes, fig. 390, r/, and convoluted 

 sperm-duct, ib. c, are separated from the kidneys, ib. o, by the 

 peritoneum, which, after giving an entire investment to the testes, 

 is simply reflected over the contiguous surface of the kidney : 

 an artery, I, s, runs between the two glands. The testis presents 

 a full elliptic figure : its peritoneal covering is usually stained 

 with a dark pigment : x is the spermatic artery, z the spermatic 

 vein. The sperm-duct opens, close to the ureter, upon a papilla, 

 fig. 391, F, at the commencement of the urethra! groove, ib. G. 

 The penis, in both freshwater and land Chelonia, is longer and 



Male organs, Draco volans. 



