604 T^^ DESCENT OF MAN, 



and there can "be little doubt, from the rejection of their 

 bodies by birds and beasts of prey, that the odor is pro- 

 tective; nevertheless, the glands become enlarged in the 

 males during the breeding-season. In many other quad- 

 rupeds the gUmds are of the same size in both sexes,* but 

 their uses are not known. In other species the glands are 

 confined to the males or are more developed than in the 

 females ; and they almost always become more active 

 during the rutting-season. At this period the glands on 

 the sides of the face of the male elephant enlarge and emit 

 a secretion having a strong musky odor. The males, and 

 rarely the females, of many kinds of bats have glands and 

 protrudable sacks situated in various parts; and it is 

 believed that these are odoriferous. 



The rank effluvium of the male goat is well known, and 

 that of certain male deer is wonderfully strong and per- 

 sistent. On the banks of the Plata I perceived the air 

 tainted with the odor of the male Cervus campestris at 

 half a mile to leeward of a herd; and a silk handkerchief, 

 in which I carried home a skin, though often used and 

 washed, retained when first unfolded traces of the odor for 

 one year and seven months. This animal does not emit 

 its strong odor until more than a year old, and if castrated 

 while young never emits it.f Besides the general odor 

 permeating the whole body of certain ruminants (for in- 

 stance. Bos moschahis) in the breeding-season, many deer, 

 antelopes, sheep and goats possess odoriferous glands in 

 various situations, more especially on their faces. The 

 so-called tear-sacks, or suborbital pits, come under this 

 head. These glands secrete a semi-fluid fetid matter which 

 is sometimes so copious as to stain the whole face, as I 

 have myself seen in an antelope. They are "usually 

 larger in the male than in the female, and their develop- 



*As with tlie castoreum of the beaver, see Mr. L. H, Morgan's 

 most interesting work, *'Tlie American Beaver," 1868, p. 300. 

 Pallas (" Spic. Zoolog.," fasc. viii, 1779, p. 23) has well discussed the 

 odoriferous glands of mammals. Owen ("Anat. of Vertebrates," 

 vol. iii, p. 634) also gives an account of these glands, including those 

 of the elephant, and (p. 763) those of shrew-mice. On bats, Mr. 

 Dobson in " Proc. Zoolog. Soc," 1873, p. 241. 



f Rengger, " Naturgeschichte der Saugethiere von Paraguay," 

 1830, s. 355. This observer also gives some curious particulars in 

 regard to the odor. 



