562 



AXATo.MY OF VERTEBRATES. 



CHAPTER X. 



PECULIAR AND DUCTLESS GLANDS. 



§101. Scent-glands of Reptiles. — The Chelonia, like most 

 Reptiles, have scent-glands, with periodical access of activity, 

 enabling and exciting, as it seems, the sexes to find each other at 

 the pairing season. In Tortoises the gland, fig. 373, a, is situated 

 beneath the skin of the mentum ; its duct, b, in a Testudo indica 

 of two feet long, opens about an inch and a half behind the 

 symphysis of the mandible, and about half an inch from the 



373 



Sectiou of mandible showing the scent-gland. Testudo in* 



mesial line. In the Turtle the glands excrete at the base of the 

 neck ; in the Kinosternon a gland is situated near the fore and 

 hind margins of the side-walls, uniting the carapace and plastron : 

 the duct perforates the bone, and opens by a fine slit in the wall. 

 In the Crocodilia a small sinus is formed by an inward fold of 

 integument near- the inner side of the mandibular ramus, into 

 which sinus opens the dilated duct of a gland, which is surrounded 

 by a muscle, detached from the back part of the pharynx, and 

 proceeding along the outer side of the ceratohyal to expand upon 

 the gland and reservoir. 1 Cuvier 2 describes its contents as being 

 unctuous, of a dark grey colour, with a strong musky odour. 



1 xx. vol. ill . p. 272; prep. no. 2106. 



xn. torn. v. p. 252 (1805). 



