284 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Claspers of Male Lizards. 



At tlie same time it was clear, from tlie structure that I had 

 observed in examining the specimen, that the organs which 

 have usually been regarded as the penes of lizards were not so 

 in reality, and Avere merely claspers, by which the male kept 

 the parts in position during coitus. 



Cuvier, for example, in the ' R^gne Animal,' in the charac- 

 ter of lizards {Souri), says the males " ont une double verge " 

 (edition 2, vol. ii. p. 26). M. de Blainville, in his '' Tableaux 

 du Ei'gue Animal,' published in the Bulletin of the Philo- 

 mathic Society, 1816, p. 119, and in his ' Organization of Ani- 

 mals,' makes a group for the lizards and snakes, which he 

 calls " Eeptiles hipeniens.'''' And I find even in Prof. Rolle- 

 ston's ' Forms of Animal Life,' just published, that he says 

 the copulative organs of the Squamata " consist of two 

 protrusible or hollow conical bodies, which open into that 

 cavity from behind " (p. Ixi) ; and when describing a female 

 snake, he says " it has tAvo conic-shaped sacs, which corre- 

 spond with the two intromittent organs of the male " (p. 82). 



The claspers of the lizards, unlike those of the cartilaginous 

 fishes, which are always external and exposed, are in the 

 male retractile into a special cavity for their protection, in the 

 sides of the under part of the tail of the animal, and are re- 

 ceived into a couple of proper receptacles in the body of the 

 female when the animals are in coitu. These organs appear 

 to have been very little studied ; for when I sent one of the 

 specimens I received from Bombay to the College of Surgeons, 

 Mr. Flower said that he was glad to retain it, as there was no 

 preparation of the kind in their museum. Perhaps this ex- 

 plains why I could not find any figure or description of the 

 penis of these lizards in Prof. Owen's work on the ' Anatomy 

 of Vertebrates.' 



M. Martin St. Ange, in his ' l^tudes de I'Appareil reproduc- 

 teur,' 1854, figures the organs of the green lizard and collared 

 snake (t. 9 & 10) ; but he represents the " double penes " in 

 their contracted, retracted state, giving no idea of the claspers 

 when in use. 



From the corrugated horny plates on the surface, they must 

 offer considerable resistance against being withdrawn from 

 the cavity in which they are enclosed when in copulation ; 

 but the lower end being first withdrawn after the connexion, 

 the outer skin is reversed, and the horny part placed on the 

 inner side, so that the drawing out of the claspers is performed 

 without any inconvenience to the female. 



The form of the claspers evidently differs in the species of 

 the same natural family. In both the specimen received 

 from Bombay and the specimen of Varanus heraldicus from 



