CHAPTER VI 



THE UROGENITAL ORGANS 



FIGURE 54 represents the urogenital apparatus 

 of a thirty-inch female specimen of Alligator 

 mississippiensis . Figure 55 shows the cor- 

 responding organs of a male A lucius; reproduced 

 from Bronn. 



The urogenital organs in the young animal are so 

 similar in the two sexes that one might easil}^ be 

 mistaken for the other; of course in sexually ma- 

 ture animals, especially during the breeding season, 

 this is not the case. 



The kid7ieys, Fig. 54, k, Fig. 55, a, are flattened, 

 lobulated organs lying against the dorsal body wall. 

 The large anterior lobe of each kidney is pointed at its 

 anterior end and lies at some little distance from its 

 fellow ; it is partially divided into secondary lobes and 

 is traversed on its ventral surface by branching blood- 

 vessels. Its antero-medial border is sometimes par- 

 tially concealed, in a ventral view, by the elongated 

 gonad of that side. Caudad to the main lobe of 

 the kidney is a smaller, usuall}^ distinct, lobe in con- 

 tact mesially with its fellow of the opposite side. 



192 



