1904.] ANATOMY OF THE LACERTILIA. 9 



left was rather longer than the right, and the reverse was the 

 case in another specimen. I presume that these veins are the 

 posterior cardinals ; they lie exactly in the same straight line as 

 the two azygos veins anteriorly, which are admitted to be the 

 anterior section of the posterior cardinals. It receives branches 

 from between the ribs running superficially over the musculature. 

 These difier on the two sides of the body in the individual where 

 they were best shown, a large specimen in which I describe later 

 the oviducal veins. On the right side, close to the point where 

 the posterior vertebral loses itself in the parietes, it receives two 

 thinnish veins from the paiietes superficially. Further back, and 

 close to the anterior end of the suprarenal body, a thicker vein, 

 fed by two branches which run backwards and forwards respec- 

 tively along the parietes, enters it. On the left side there is only 

 one anterior vein debouching into the posterior vertebral. The 

 corresponding vein to the thicker posterior vein on the right side 

 opens directly into the suprarenal body, as explained later and as 

 illustrated in the figure to which reference has already been 

 made. 



I mention later that in Pygopus there is a vein obviously 

 corresponding to the posterior vertebral. There is also, as I have 

 described, a similar vein in Iguana * which arises from the 

 parietes close to the median side on the left, and forms one of the 

 afierent suprarenal vessels. In Iguana, as in most Lizards, the 

 suprarenal body lies a long way in front of the kidney, hence 

 the absence in that form of a connection between the posterior 

 vertebral and the kidney. 



In a more fully mature individual of large size, which I owe 

 to the kindness of Mr. J. F. Ochs, F.Z.S., the veins of the kidney 

 region were very successfully injected, and enable me to describe, 

 which was impossible in the other specimen, the oviducal veins. 

 There was a slight difference on the two sides of the body ; on 

 the left side three oviducal veins reach the posterior vertebral 

 vein in front of the kidney, one crossing the suprarenal body to 

 do so. In the region of the kidney itself three oviducal veins 

 reach the afierent renal in front of the anterior abdominal, and 

 at least two behind it. On the right side, the most anterior 

 oviducal vein takes up, before reaching the posterior vertebral 

 vein, a vein from the dorsal parietes anteiior to, but in the same 

 straight line with, the posterior vertebral at the point where it 

 plunges into the thickness of the parietes. 



Some of the oviducal veins take up a branch from the supra- 

 renal body before joining the posterior vertebral ; in other cases 

 the efierent suprarenal veins open directly into the posterior 

 vertebral. 



A remarkable fact about the oviducal veins is the anterior 

 termination of the longitudinal vein running along the entire 

 oviduct into which they open. This vein could be readily traced 



* Loc. cit, p. M3. 



